MADISON – The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents today approved a request from the School of Business Dean’s Advisory Board at UW-Madison to adjust the base salary of Michael Knetter, dean of the School of Business. Given the current state fiscal environment, Knetter’s salary increase will be funded entirely from private, non-state dollars.
“We are enormously grateful for this strong show of support from the private sector,” said UW-Madison Provost Peter Spear. “This will help us retain one of the most talented and respected business deans in the nation, and it will help keep the School of Business at the forefront of economic development in Wisconsin.”
According to Spear, the adjustment was recommended in a letter from Paul Shain, chief operating officer of Berbee and chair of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the School of Business. In the letter, the Advisory Board expressed concerns about the non-competitive nature of Knetter’s salary, of the significant private salary supplements other universities were offering their business deans, and of the very real possibility of Knetter leaving UW-Madison.
“The members of the Advisory Board are concerned that we will lose Dean Knetter to another university if we do not increase his salary to make it more competitive,” Shain wrote. “That would be a great loss to UW-Madison.”
Knetter’s current salary of $247,659 is the second-lowest among Business Deans at UW-Madison’s peer institutions and is $30,000 below the median, excluding privately funded salary supplements, which the UW does not currently provide. The $50,000 base salary adjustment approved by the Regents will eventually be funded from a permanent endowment raised by the School of Business Dean’s Advisory Board.
“This will save state dollars,” Spear said, ” and it will also allow us to increase the salary to a competitive level for Dean Knetter, as well as for future School of Business Deans.”