68 public university presidents made more than Obama

68 public university presidents are better paid than the leader of the free world, according to a new report from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The report shows the salaries of both public and private university presidents and chancellors. With the presidents at both Penn State at University Park and Texas A&M University making over $1 million, there are 68 state university presidents and chancellors across the country who made more money in 2014 than President Barack Obama’s  salary of $400,000.

According to Huffington Post, both university presidents left their posts in 2014.

The rising costs of tuition and the rising base salary of university presidents garnered strong criticism from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) last year.

"Presiding over a public university should not be a ticket to extreme wealth,” said IPS’s Dr. Marjorie Wood. "What's even more disturbing is that these highly-paid university presidents have performed worse than their lower-paid peers when it comes to lowering costs for students and investing in the quality of instruction."

Ohio State University interim President Joseph Alutto made $996,169 in 2014, placing him third on the list.

“Personally I think those funds could be allocated more towards helping students financially,” OSU student Kalman Roemer said in an interview with Campus Reform. “Ohio State does a great job giving scholarships and we even froze in-state tuition rates for this year, but there could be more done… I should not be paying $30,000 a year to have professors who I cannot understand or learn from.”

American Student Assistance released a report in 2013 stating that almost two-thirds of college students said their students loads crippled their freedom to make large financial decisions like buying a car.

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