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By Chris Werner

College Editor

Mark Bradley, chairman of the Board of Regents Business and Finance Committee, released a report Friday stating that the salaries of University of Wisconsin System executives are behind those of their peers.

The report attributes the below-market salaries to the board’s decision to halt an increase in pay for top executives.

As the Capital Times reported, the analysis showed that UW System president Katharine Lyall’s salary is $22,796 behind that of the median pay of $327,776. Likewise, the salary of UW Chancellor John Wiley is $23,296 lower than others.

The report compared the salaries of the executives to other university systems such as the University of California System, among others. The report also looked at Wiley’s pay compared to his peers at such places as the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

The report also viewed the perks UW System leaders receive, such as housing expenditures and retirement and vacation benefits, among others.

The regents requested the report after a controversial Sept. 2 vote that approved salary adjustments for UW System leaders.

Those in favor of the approval expressed concern over maintaining quality leaders in an increasingly competitive university administration job market. They used the loss of two UW System leaders to higher-paying out-of-state positions to illustrate the possibility of losing even more leaders.

Opponents, however, firmly believe increases are unnecessary when universities are facing budget cuts and students are struggling to tackle steep tuition increases.