The salary for the dean of the business school will now be paid for by a private endowment created with a gift from supporters of the University of Wisconsin School of Business.

“It will free up resources elsewhere in the budget that previously paid my salary to do something else to help the school,” School of Business Dean Michael Knetter said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald Thursday.

The endowment will fund the costs of the deanship, which has been mostly paid by university funds.

The 2007-08 salary of the dean was $324,584, making Knetter the highest paid dean in the university and the sixth-highest paid employee of UW-Madison that year.

The “Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business” will now be the formal name for the position of the Dean of the Business School.

The name is a result of a gift from Albert and Nancy Johnson Nicholas. The donation was a part of the Wisconsin Naming Gift given last year, which totaled $85 million from 13 donors to guarantee the Wisconsin School of Business name remains the same for 20 years.

According to UW Foundation President Sandy Wilcox, the endowed deanship means the money is used at the discretion of the dean and that he has a lot more flexible funds, which he can use to target opportunities he sees to improve the school.

Knetter said the endowment would enhance “the prestige of the position to have it associated with someone like Abe Nicholas.”

Nicholas is the chair and chief executive officer of Nicholas, Co. in Milwaukee. He is also a member of the UW Foundation Board of Directors and has a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s of business administration from UW.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Nicholas family for all they do for the university,” Knetter said. “It is an honor to have the Nicholas name attached to the title of this position.”

Wilcox said the Nicholas family had been “wonderful supporters of this institution.”

This is the second endowed deanship UW-Madison has received, the first being the Frederick W. and Vi Miller Dean of the Law School, which was named in 2004.

Wilcox said endowed deanships are great for the university, and the UW Foundation would like to see all deanships become endowed.