- The University of Florida Board of Trustees approved up to a $3 million annual salary for the next university president to attract top candidates.
- Current interim president Donald Landry earns a $2 million base salary with a possible $500,000 bonus and severance until August 2027 if not selected permanently.
- Previous UF presidents had lower salaries, with Ben Sasse earning $1 million annually and Kent Fuchs starting at $860,000 in 2015.
- UF's presidential search qualifications and advertisements were approved to guide the search for the 14th president after the prior nominee was rejected in June 2025.
The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted to pay the university’s next president an annual salary of up to $3 million at a virtual meeting held on Monday.
According to the meeting’s agenda, UF’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee worked with consulting firm Mercer “to recommend a competitive compensation range to attract and retain top-tier presidential candidates.” The annual salary was reported in The Independent Florida Alligator.
“Compensation was benchmarked nationally, taking into consideration market trends, candidate pool and relevant competition for candidates,” the agenda said.
The search advisory committee met with Mercer on Feb. 10, where members reviewed and approved the compensation range to be presented to Board Chair Mori Hosseini and the other trustees for approval, according to the agenda.
Current UF interim President Donald Landry earns a $2 million base salary, according to his employment agreement, with a potential $500,000 bonus if he meets performance goals.
Additionally, if Landry is not selected as UF’s permanent president when his contract ends on Aug. 31, the agreement states that “UF shall pay him a severance in the amount of the Annual Base Salary ($2 million) through” Aug. 31, 2027.
Ben Sasse, who served as UF’s 13th president from February 2023 until his resignation in July 2024, had a five-year contract, in which he was earning an annual base salary of $1 million, according to his employment agreement.
Kent Fuchs, UF’s president from 2015 to 2023, started his tenure with a base salary of $860,000. At the time, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that it was “the highest base salary of any of the other Florida university presidents,” and nearly double the base salary for a lot of them.
By the time he left the president’s role in 2023, Fuchs’ total compensation package was $1.4 million a year, according to a report by NBC 6 South Florida.
When Sasse stepped down, Fuchs received an annual base salary of $1 million for his nearly one-year stint as interim president, according to his interim employment agreement.
When comparing UF’s presidential salary to other top universities around the state, Florida State University (FSU) President Richard McCullough receives an annual salary of $1.25 million, according to an article by the Tallahassee Democrat. This is the same amount that University of South Florida (USF) President Moez Limayem is earning under a five-year contract.
In September 2025, the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Board of Trustees unanimously voted on a new $1.2 million base salary for university President Dr. Alexander Cartwright. This was an increase from his original $900,000 annual base salary that was set in April 2025.
Also, during its meeting, the UF Board of Trustees approved the search advisory committee’s recommended qualifications and criteria for the presidential search. These qualifications and criteria were created through feedback from three listening sessions held in January and early February, as well as an online stakeholder survey.
The UF Board of Trustees also approved the search advisory committee’s recommended presidential prospectus and advertisement based on those qualifications and criteria and other “updated information regarding UF’s accomplishments and stature,” according to the agenda.
The agenda said that “these materials will be used by the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and the search consultant (Korn Ferry) to market the presidential position.”
On Dec. 5, 2025, the UF Board of Trustees unanimously approved a request by Hosseini to start the search for the university’s 14th president. This was a little over six months after UF’s last presidential nominee – Dr. Santa Ono – was rejected by the Florida Board of Governors in a 10-6 vote in June 2025.
Ono, who was serving as the president of the University of Michigan at the time, was chosen as the sole finalist for UF’s president position in May 2025 following a months-long search and had received unanimous support from the UF Board of Trustees.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.