Income Disparities at Connecticut College

Students believe that President Katherine Bergeron is being paid too much. The general opinion among the student body seems to be one of disapproval and frustration. 

Students have expressed irritation with the cost of attending Conn when contrasted with the lack of improvements seen at the school. Carly Zirlen ‘25 said, “it’s frustrating when the school is clearly struggling financially. Zirlen cited the issue of mold in the showers, a health and safety issue, which the school should immediately address. “Compared to what we are paying, the living conditions should be a lot better.”

President Katherine Bergeron was paid $418,304 in 2019 which was relatively consistent with her past earnings since coming to Conn in 2014. Her highest and lowest years were in 2016 when she made $466,627, and in 2017 with $409,394, respectively. However, in the fiscal year ending in June 2020, Bergeron was paid $629.728. Her base compensation for the year was $420,628, but other forms of reportable compensation and nontaxable benefits brought it up to that amount. Most of the additional money was from a payment agreement in her contract at the beginning of her first term, in exchange for not taking a sabbatical at the end of it. In an interview with President Bergeron, she decided not to take a sabbatical because there were “far too many projects we were working on to take time off from the regular academic year.”

 In an email from the payroll manager of the College, Beth Blaisdell noted that “the President voluntarily reduced her compensation by $100,000 during the pandemic.” The tax documents from the 2020-2021 fiscal year, when this took place, have not been released yet. Bergeron reiterated in our interview that she “voluntarily took a $100,000 pay reduction.”

Bergeron explained that “salaries are set within an institution and within a market. We do assessments of salaries on a regular basis, to remain competitive within the market.” When compared with Presidents of similar institutions, Bergeron is not being paid as much. Connecticut College also has the lowest endowment of all the NESCAC schools by a relatively large margin. Looking at the salaries of all of the 11 NESCAC Presidents in 2018, she was the second-lowest paid, with $464,226 that year. These salaries are in a wide range, the lowest was President Maud Mandel at Hamilton College, who made $340,014; while at Wesleyan, President Michael Roth was paid $2,954,947.

Some students feel that Bergeron’s high salary is standard. “I mean, it’s high but it is a reflection of the value she provides and she seems to be successful securing large donations—which is her job” said one student on YikYak. 

The second-highest-paid employee of the College is Richard Madonna, the VP for Finance and Admin, he made $293,362 in the fiscal year ending in June 2020. None of the top paid administrators, including Madonna, have received major raises over the past couple of years. One fact to note is that in 2014, his last year at the school, the previous President, Leo Higdon Jr. made $1,096,699 as a base salary, but the year before that he made a total of $478,709. This was a number around the previous years salaries for him as well.

In an email, Ingrid Bushwack, Director of Dining Services at Connecticut College stated that since the pandemic began “there have not been any overall increases in pay for dining staff.” They did receive hazard pay for “when dining staff were required to make food deliveries directly to rooms in area hotels where isolated students were being housed.” In another email, Larry Lewellen, the Interim Vice President of HR, said that “the College does not provide cost of living increases per se, but does provide regular salary increases based on financial ability and competitive market information.”

The lowest-paid employees at Conn are the Teacher Aides in the Child Development Lab, who make $13.50 per hour. Lewellen wrote “these staff are part of a system of similar lab schools and child development centers across the country, providing important developmental experience to children but for some reason, these positions are undervalued on a national basis, similar to what we pay.  We are in the process right now of evaluating the pay level for these staff, as requested by the Lab School earlier this academic year.”

When compared to other salaries across the country, Bergeron is fitting in. She is on the lower side at that, but Conn also has a lower endowment than many comparable schools. Students have complaints and money is needed to fix most of them; so many are frustrated that Bergeron is being paid so much, while they have to deal with issues like bathrooms that can lead to mold sickness. Also, while there are employees making under what is considered a livable wage ($15.34) in New London Country. Zirlen had a widely held sentiment that “it’s evident there is money to go around,” but it is not being used properly.