Since they're a private school, Syracuse University gets to be exempt from a bunch of things... a fact especially frustrating for someone pretending to be a journalist most days of the week. Recently, this wannabe-journalist (aka blogger) tried to skirt around those things by filing a FOIA request with a public school. Alas, nothing came of it.
Even private universities end up with public documents eventually, though, even if it's a year or so later. Syracuse.com, as they do each year, gave us the info we need to know about Syracuse University salaries from 2014-15.
To no one's surprise, Jim Boeheim made the most of any SU employee according to its 990 form (for non-profit institutions), taking home $2Mish. Former Orange football coach Scott Shafer made $1.5M, while former athletic director (and still employee) DOCTOR Gross took home $894,361. So for those keeping track at home, two of the top three most-paid employees at SU no longer serve in that role. The other, Boeheim, is expected to be done with his role within two years from now.
As the headline states, however, the bigger takeaway is that SU Athletics generated a $19.8M surplus in 2014-15. Much of that is thanks to a fat ACC television contract, along with Syracuse football raking in dough despite being terrible during the year in question.
Yesterday, I had some questions related to the 2013 990-T document (taxes on income unrelated to business). Most of those queries came from what appeared to be a fleet of KIA vehicles creating a net loss of over $600,000. Still not sure what this is in relation to, since our sources on the ground near SUA can't really account for all these oddly expensive vehicles.
In other relevant news, Chancellor Kent Syverud took home upward of $900,000 during the filing period, according to the Daily Orange's report.
The lesson, as always: get yourself into higher education administration.