OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s pick for its new College of Arts and Sciences dean - a prominent researcher and member of the National Academy of Sciences - will be among one of the highest-paid administrators at the university.
Joseph Francisco’s total compensation will be $365,000 a year, The Omaha World-Herald reported (https://bit.ly/1hyhb5r) Saturday.
That’s more that UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman’s pay of about $350,000.
Among deans in the University of Nebraska system, only two had a higher compensation package than the one being offered to Francisco: the dean at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Medicine and the dean of the UNL College of Business Administration.
Francisco’s salary will also be 44 percent higher than that of his predecessor.
Francisco’s pay is commensurate with the value the university sees in him and is in line with what’s offered at other research universities, UNL spokesman Steve Smith said.
“It is true at a lot of research universities around the country that eminent researchers will make more than the chancellor,” Smith said.
The field for candidates is competitive. Searches are underway at three other Big Ten universities for similar roles, and Francisco was named as a finalist at the University of Illinois this month.
Francisco, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and chemistry and associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Science at Purdue University, has served as president of the American Chemical Society and the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. He is also a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published more than 400 journal articles.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and a doctorate in chemical physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences last year and will become the third UNL faculty member with that distinction.
Francisco will begin at UNL in July, pending the university Board of Regents’ approval.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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