How much do Chapman executives, professors and part-time faculty make?
Graphic by Easton Clark, Photo Editor
Two Chapman executives made over $1 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year, and salaries across the board increased for the top administrators at the university.
This comes as the university currently reports that about 50% of all research and teaching faculty are part-time employees. Salaries for full-time professors can range anywhere from $80,000 to $230,000, depending on the position. Pay for adjunct faculty is per hour, and sits around $40-60.
Robert Hitchcock, Chapman’s director of strategic communications, said that the pay package offered at Chapman is competitive with similar institutions as well as the job market at large.
The Panther looked into how much the salaries at Chapman rose from 2022-23 to 23-24, and how the current university salaries and hiring practices compare to other universities in Southern California and across the nation.
Executive Salaries
Then-President Danielle Struppa earned $1,256,399 in base compensation for the 23-24 fiscal year — an increase of $68,909. He earned an additional $583,110 in “other compensation” from the university, which was a $30,703 increase.
Listed on tax form 990, the “other compensation” section refers to benefits such as retirement plan contributions, health insurance costs paid by the university, life insurance and housing allowances.
Harold Hewitt, who was the executive vice president and chief operating officer at the time, made $1,145,032 for the fiscal year — a raise of $204,625. Hewitt’s benefits package also grew by $32,173, from $121,653 to $153,826.
Other executives, such as then-Provost Norma Bouchard or then-Chief Advancement Officer Matt Parlow, also saw an increase in pay. Bouchard’s salary grew by $16,212, listed at $698,281. Parlow’s went up $116,501 from $688,722 to $805,223. Parlow’s benefits package saw a slight bump of just over $1,000, landing at $140,730. Bouchard’s dropped by $6,062, with the final package being $151,569.
The 23-24 fiscal year ended in May 2024, but in 2025, all of these positions have changed hands. Struppa retired as president, and Parlow took his place at the start of the current academic year. Jessica Berger currently holds Parlow’s old position.
Hewitt left Chapman to work for the California Educational Facilities Authority and Brian Thomason — who was reported to have made $387,464 when he was the vice president of finance, according to these filings — replaced him. Bouchard was put on leave in the spring of this year, before officially being let go from the university. Michael Ibba is now the provost.
Similar compensation packages could be expected for those in the new positions; however, that cannot currently be confirmed. The tax filings for the current fiscal year — which would include the salaries for the new appointments — will not be available until after April 2027.
Other executive salaries include Jerry Price, the vice president of student affairs and dean of students, who made $349,147, and Collette Creppell, the vice president of campus planning and design, who made $367,028. Both of these increased by over $15,000.
Not listed in the 2022-23 filings was Henrik Cronqvist, a professor of business economics. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, he was reported to have made $685,809 with a benefits package of $40,401.
Hitchcock’s statement to The Panther gave the university’s justification for these salaries.
“Chapman offers a competitive total compensation program, including both salary and benefits, that supports our goal of attracting top talent in higher education,” Hitchcock said. “Our compensation philosophy is based on maintaining strong competitiveness within both the higher education landscape and the broader Southern California regional market.”
Hitchcock explained that Chapman has to compete with other universities and the corporate industry to attract executives for senior-level positions.
Other Universities
The salaries are akin to those at a similarly sized private institution, Loyola Marymount University (LMU). LMU’s former president, Timothy Snyder, was reported to have a salary of $911,975 while the current president, then-Provost Thomas Poon, made $512,303.
Where Chapman reported $776 million in revenue for the 23-24 fiscal year, LMU reported $698 million. Both universities have nearly equal enrollment, around 10,000 students in total.
One large difference between Chapman and LMU is the benefits package for executives. Struppa received $300,000 more in benefits than Snyder, while Bouchard got $70,000 more in benefits than Poon.
LMU spends considerably more funds on its NCAA Division I athletics program, with its men’s basketball coach, Stan Johnson, making over $1 million and the athletic director, Craig Pintens, making $690,564. Salaries for Chapman’s DIII coaches don’t show up in the tax form.
Executive pay elsewhere in California will also be rising soon.
The California State University system recently approved the elimination of salary caps for top executives, allowing higher compensation packages to be offered. This is in an attempt to attract top talent for presidential positions. Cal State trustees also voted to introduce bonuses for executives, capped at 15% of their base pay according to the LA Times.
Faculty Pay
As for professors and lecturers, pay can vary vastly depending on the job and which academic school it is in. Chapman’s open job postings on Interfolio show that professors and lecturers in STEM or business jobs are offered more than those in the arts, such as English, music or dance.
An associate professor job in accounting could pay up to $230,000 per year, while an associate professor of music could make at maximum $100,000. There is no significant difference in the pay for these job openings based on tenure or non-tenure track.
For part-time jobs — adjunct faculty who get paid per hour and don’t have a long-term contract with the university — this stayed true. A lecturer job in the human anatomy lab is offering $51.28 per hour, while a lecturer job in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is listed at $46.85 per hour.
In Hitchcock’s statement, he also said that Chapman’s professor salaries and pay are some of the most comprehensive in the country.
“A key area of focus right now is increasing transparency around merit processes and equity reviews, ensuring faculty have a clearer understanding of how compensation decisions are made,” he said.
As of the most up-to-date information from Hitchcock, Chapman currently has 595 full-time faculty and 590 part-time faculty.
Jeff Pearlman, who earns just over $6,000 in a semester teaching a sports journalism class as a part-time faculty member, said that this is representative of a larger trend for universities.
“Universities (and) colleges are turning more and more to adjuncts because it’s cheap labor,” Pearlman said. “You don’t have to worry about salary, health insurance (or) unions. And if you wanna dump an adjunct, there’s zero firing process. No mess or fuss. You just don’t use them again. For the (university), it’s a can’t-lose (situation). For professors seeking full-time work, however, it sucks.”
According to a 2023 survey by the American Federation of Teachers, 75% of adjuncts in the U.S. said they are only guaranteed employment for one semester at a time. In that same study, it was found that over 25% of those faculty reported making less than $26,500 in a year.
Chapman’s 50% split between full-time and part-time faculty is representative of a larger practice in higher education. According to the LA Times and the American Association of University Professors, around 70% of faculty in the U.S. are adjunct.
Current administrative, full-time and part-time pay at Chapman is not unusual compared to national trends and other similar institutions. Higher, more competitive pay for executives and the greater use of part-time faculty seem to be emerging trends in California higher education institutions, rather than a Chapman-specific case.
