University President John J. DeGioia’s salary, which just a few years ago was on par with executive compensation at other leading universities, dropped slightly during the past two years, bucking an upward trend among most colleges and universities.

DeGioia’s salary for 2004-05 was just over $565,000, an increase from the previous year, but still slightly under the $587,922 he earned in 2002-03, according to the university’s tax returns.

Around the nation, presidential salaries have risen substantially since 2003. The median salary increased by 9.8 percent between 2003-05, according to statistics provided by John Curtis, director of research and public policy for the American Association of University Professors. DeGioia’s salary fell nearly 4 percent during that period.

“It definitely has been the case that average salaries for presidents have been going up, and going up rather dramatically,” Curtis said.

Former Cornell University President Jeffrey Lehman, who stepped down in June 2005, earned in excess of $1,079,000 last year, up nearly $340,000 from the previous year, making him the highest paid Ivy League president. Yale University President Richard Levin and Brown University President Ruth Simmons each earned over $700,000.

At local universities, presidential salaries were also on the rise. Outgoing George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg earned just shy of $720,000 for 2004-05, up from above $641,000 two years prior, while former American University President Benjamin Ladner was paid over $881,000 last year, an increase of over $265,000 from his 2002-03 salary.

Ladner was dismissed last year after allegations surfaced that he had used university money for personal expenses.

DeGioia’s salary is determined annually by a four-member subcommittee from the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors.

“Among other factors, the subcommittee looks at salary levels of comparable positions at peer institutions,” university spokesman Erik Smulson said.

DeGioia’s salary is still over three times higher the median president’s salary in an AAUP survey, which Curtis said was $180,946 for 2005. Curtis said that DeGioia’s salary is over three times higher because this figure includes public colleges and smaller, non-research institutions.

Curtis said that presidents’ salaries have risen too much in recent years, particularly because that they have far outpaced the growth of salaries of university faculty.

“Colleges and universities . still are not for profit,” he said. “Colleges and universities operate for the common good.”

At Georgetown, DeGioia was not the only official compensated at a presidential level. Daniel Sedmak, former executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of Georgetown University Medical Center, who resigned in 2004, made over $733,000 last year in severance pay, making him the highest-paid person on the university’s budget. Sedmak’s compensation dropped more than $30,000 from the previous year.

Other high-earning university officials included Stuart Bondurant, interim executive vice president for health sciences and executive dean of the school of medicine, who made nearly $470,000. Spiros Dimolitsas, the university’s senior president and chief administrative officer, earned $383,125 last year, while Provost James O’Donnell made over $322,000 and Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff earned just over $300,000.

Smulson said that DeGioia annually reviews the salary and performance of “university leaders.”