The university is preparing to review how it pays executives like President Mark Hamilton at the request of the Board of Regents.

UA is currently taking bids to hire a consultant that would look over how it pays top university officials. The goal is to make the system transparent and accountable while at the same time seeing how it can be improved, said Jim Johnsen, vice president of administration.

"Our target is usually 10 percent below the market median," Johnsen said. "Is that a good idea? That's been our practice for a number of years, and we'd like to take a look at that."

The average executive at UA earns $122,007 annually, and annual payroll and benefits for executives costs UA more than $19.7 million, according to the solicitation for bids. But those 140 executives comprise only 3 percent of the total workforce, the document says.

University regulations set out specific pay grades for executives, the top one reaching $159,240, according to a solicitation for bids produced by UA.

But while that policy is still on the books, the university hasn't followed it in more than a decade, Johnsen said. Instead, the university now bases pay off of market data compiled by a collegiate association.

"[It] makes a hell of a lot more sense to base it off of that then off of some table that hasn't been updated in a while," he said.

In contrast, the median salary for faculty at UAF is $57,005, according to Sine Anahita, who studies university pay rates for the UAF Faculty Senate's Committee on the Status of Women.

University officials have said that salaries need to be based on market rate by discipline and not compared to other jobs in the state. By paying near market rate, university officials argue they can attract better candidates when jobs open up.

On top of pay, executives at the university receive other employee benefits, such as 18 vacation days, 14 sick days, 11 paid holidays and state retirement benefits. They also receive health benefits, which equal about 35 percent of their salary.

The university now wants consultants to assess and improve its executive compensation system. The consultants would, among other things, compare UA's executive pay rates to other universities and address concerns about being competitive.

The university is asking for a report that would, at minimum, assess executive pay and recommend improvements. A final contract is expected by March 28. Johnsen said he expects the report in the fall.

According to the solicitation, the UA Statewide Office of Human Resources in 2002 began benchmarking executive employee salary adjustments against a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, a national organization. UA aimed to get pay at 90 percent of the market median as reported in the survey.

The statewide human resources department began raising pay for positions that were under market. Meanwhile each campus upped salaries as well in order "to address equity, retention, promotion and extraordinary performance," the solicitation says.

Annual adjustments for executives since 2002 come from a pool of funds based at 2.6 percent of overall executive pay each year. In contrast, faculty adjustments are from a pool based at around 4.6 percent of their total pay. Johnsen said the report might try to adjust for this.

In 2004, Hamilton authorized the chancellors at UAF, UAA and UAS to make salary adjustments from a pool that represented 2.6 percent of campus executive salaries.

"This delegation allows greater flexibility for each campus to distribute the adjustments, however the distributions have not been applied in a consistent manner," the solicitation says.

Johnsen said those inconsistencies come from how the extra money is spent at the different campuses.

Sometimes the funds are used to increase annual salaries. Other times, chancellors use them to issue bonuses.