BECKLEY UNIVERSITY HEAD MAKES $760,000

(11/21/2008)
The president of Beckley-based Mountain State University was paid more than WVU Interim President C. Peter Magrath and Marshall President Stephen Kopp, according to a report released this week.

Charles Polk, the president of MSU, is among the 30 highest paid private university presidents in the USA, according to a survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

His $760,140 in total compensation earns him more than the presidents of institutions such as Cal Tech, Princeton, Stanford and Cornell.

About $300,000 of that sum came from a deferred compensation benefits package and a bonus for performance and longevity.

Polk, a Texas native, came to what was originally Beckley College, a junior college, in 1990.

Polk transformed it into a four-year degree-granting institution that was renamed the College of West Virginia. In 2001, it became Mountain State University. It now has graduate programs and campuses in Beckley and Martinsburg, WV, Orlando, FL, Hickory, NC and Center Township, PA.

The Chronicle says a former president of WVU, E. Gordon Gee is the highest paid public university president in the country at Ohio State, at about $1.3 million.