WASHINGTON — Donald E. Ross turned Lynn University, once a nearly bankrupt two-year Catholic school for women in Boca Raton, Fla., into a thriving four-year liberal arts college. Now, as Ross nears retirement after 34 years as president, it is apparent how much the board of trustees appreciates his work.

Ross ranked first in total compensation among the nation's private-university presidents for the 2003-04 academic year with a package worth $5,042,315, according to the latest annual survey of executive compensation by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Data from 2003-04 is the most recent available for private schools.

For the first time, the survey reported private-school presidents earning $1 million in a single year. The four others identified were Audrey K. Doberstein, formerly of Wilmington College in Delaware ($1,370,973); E. Gordon Gee of Vanderbilt University ($1,326,786); John R. Silber of Boston University ($1,253,352); and John N. McCardell Jr., formerly of Middlebury College in Vermont ($1,213,141).

Overall, the survey said, nine presidents of private universities earned more than $900,000 each, compared with none the year before, and 50 presidents of private universities earned at least $500,000 each, a 19 percent increase over the previous year.

The upward spiral serves as the latest reminder that effective college presidents are a hot commodity and that college boards are going to unusual lengths to recruit and retain them even as tuitions soar and Congress and the Internal Revenue Service examine the finances of nonprofit institutions. The IRS is looking at the rise in compensation for executives working for nonprofit institutions and is in the process of auditing about 2,000 of them, some of them university officials.

Universities defended the payment packages as crucial to their success, and Raymond D. Cotton, a lawyer who specializes in contract negotiations for college presidents, said high compensation for those at the top reflected a growing demand for a shrinking population of qualified people.

Presidents of public universities generally earn much less than their private-school counterparts. But the survey also showed a jump in the number of public-school presidents earning more than $500,000, 23 for the current academic year, from 17 in 2003-04. The latest group is led by Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan ($724,604), Mark G. Yudof of the University of Texas ($693,677) and Carl V. Patton of Georgia State University ($688,406).

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