CUNY is forking over $18,000 a month to house new Chancellor James Milliken, who starts Monday.
But the public university, which is supported by taxpayer dollars, refuses to say where exactly Milliken will live, only that it’s an Upper East Side rental.
“The chancellor is required to live in the university residence and to use it for university business, including events and meetings with students, faculty, alumni, donors, civic and community leaders, among other activities,” said Michael Arena, a CUNY spokesman.
The university system is paying for the new home with $3.7 million it received from selling an East 79th Street residence used by previous chancellors.
Part of the windfall from that sale will also be used for upkeep on the homes of CUNY college presidents, Arena said.
Milliken will be paid $670,000 a year and will have the use of a car and driver — which means he is making $180,000 more than the previous CUNY chancellor, Matthew Goldstein, who stepped down in June 2013 and is now being paid $300,000 annually as chancellor emeritus for the next five years. Goldstein did not live in the East 79th Street residence but received a $90,000-a-year housing allowance.
While Milliken’s compensation package is higher than Goldstein’s, the amount of taxpayer dollars used to fund it was $70,705 less, Arena said.
All the largesse comes as tuition at CUNY’s four-year colleges rises to $6,030 a year in September under a five-year plan adopted in 2011 that hikes tuition by $300 annually.
These perks are standard issue for NYC university presidents and often continue after they leave.
The New School paid former President Bob Kerrey as “president emeritus” for two years and continued to give him a housing allowance of $215,385 in 2011 and $100,000 in 2012, according to the college’s tax filings. Kerrey provided fund-raising and consulting services for the Greenwich Village university and was given a stipend to live near the college, a New School spokesman said.
Cooper Union’s new president, Jamshed Bharucha, was paid $478,171 in 2012 and lives in university housing with maid service, which was valued at $119,158 a year, according to the college’s tax filings.
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman