The ongoing antisemitic protests at elite colleges and universities around the country amid the war between Israel and the terror group Hamas has roiled campuses as spring terms continue and graduation season nears.

Unauthorized encampments and other demonstrations have sprung up at many campuses around the country, with Fox News research finding that such protests have occurred at over half of the top 50 colleges in the country since April 17.

The campus unrest puts leaders of both public and private colleges in a challenging position, with some looking to address public safety needs and restore calm on campus to avoid escalating the situation – even as the unrest causes some university donors to reconsider their future support based on the college’s response.

College presidents often earn well over $1 million annually in compensation, although those figures may vary based on the size and stature of the institution. Private institutions also disclose compensation differently than their public counterparts, and a report from The Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) analyzed the highest paid private university presidents in 2021. 

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Here is a look at how much the highest paid private university presidents earned that year, per the Chronicle’s report.

Then-UPenn President Amy Gutmann earned nearly $22.9 million in 2021, according to the Chronicle’s analysis. That featured about $1.6 million in base pay, plus a $1 million bonus with the more than $20 million remainder coming from deferred compensation and investment gains. 

When compared to corporate CEOs, Gutmann’s compensation that year would have made her the 68th highest-paid CEO of a S&P 500 company in 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal’s rankings. Gutmann departed UPenn in 2022 as the school’s longest-serving president in history for an appointment as the U.S. ambassador to Germany in the Biden administration. 

UPenn currently has an interim president after Gutmann’s successor, Liz Magill, stepped down from the role in December amid a controversy over her congressional testimony on antisemitism.

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Then-Columbia President Lee Bollinger earned nearly $3.9 million in compensation in 2021 per the CHE report, including a base salary of $1.6 million, other compensation of more than $1 million plus a $700,000 bonus and nearly half a million dollars in benefits. That sum would have ranked 400th among S&P 500 CEOs in 2023 per the Journal’s rankings.

Bollinger stepped down as Columbia’s president in June 2023. His successor in the role is Minouche Shafik.

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Then-NYU President Andrew Hamilton earned a little more than $3.5 million in 2021 per the CHE analysis, which was mostly in the form of base pay with nearly $213,000 in benefits. That sum would have ranked 401st among S&P 500 CEOs per the Journal’s 2023 rankings.

Hamilton stepped down as NYU president in July 2023 and was succeeded by Linda Mills.

USC President Carol Folt earned nearly $3.5 million in 2021 according to the CHE report, which included over $1.4 million in base pay plus a $900,000 bonus and a little more than $1.1 million in other compensation. That sum would have ranked 402nd among S&P 500 CEOs per the Journal’s 2023 rankings.

Folt, the first female president of USC, has served in the role since 2019.

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Then-Chicago President Robert Zimmer earned over $3.4 million in 2021 per CHE, with about $1.4 million in base pay, over $1.7 million in bonus pay and most of the remainder in other compensation. That sum would have ranked 403rd among S&P 500 CEOs per the Journal’s 2023 rankings.

Zimmer served as the Chicago president from 2006 to 2021, when the university established a chancellor role that he served in for one academic year before the role was eliminated in 2022. The CHE report noted that Zimmer did not serve as the university’s chief executive role for the full year.

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President Biden vowed to let massive components of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire next year if he wins re-election, meaning that millions of Americans could soon face steeper tax bills.

“Donald Trump was very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and biggest corporations and exploded the federal debt,” Biden tweeted Tuesday. “That tax cut is going to expire. If I’m reelected, it’s going to stay expired.”

Enacted by former President Donald Trump in 2017, the law drastically overhauled the nation’s tax code, including reducing the top individual income tax bracket to 37% from 39.6% and nearly doubling the size of the standard deduction.

However, those changes to the individual section of the tax code are poised to sunset in 2025, meaning that many taxpayers – including those who earn less than $400,000 – will face steeper levies if the law is not extended.

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“If lawmakers allow full expiration to occur, most Americans will see their personal tax bills rise and incentives for working and investing worsen,” said Erica York, senior economist and research director at the Tax Foundation.

In addition to lowering the top tax bracket for wealthy Americans, the Trump-era law raised the thresholds for several income tax brackets – essentially lowering the liability for many households. 

The individual income tax brackets in 2017, before Trump’s tax law took effect.

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The individual income tax brackets in 2024, under current tax law.

The expiration of the tax law on Dec. 31, 2025, will essentially mean that many Americans will be forced to pay anywhere between 1% to 4% more in taxes unless certain provisions are extended or made permanent, according to the Tax Foundation. 

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The matter is likely to be a source of contention during the general election. Trump has pledged to make the tax cuts permanent if he is re-elected in November. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously suggested that Biden would seek to retain the tax reductions for Americans earning less than $400,000 during a second term in the White House, 

A White House official told FOX Business that Biden’s tweet reiterates what is in the president’s budget – that tax cuts would expire for those earning more than $400,000, but stay in place for lower- and middle-income Americans earning less than $400,000.

The problem, however, is that the Congressional Budget Office estimates extending the TCJA would add roughly $3.7 trillion to the federal budget deficit. 

The original law was partially paid for by the so-called SALT deduction cap, which limits the amount of state and local taxes that Americans can deduct from their federal taxes to $10,000. That cap is also poised to end in 2025. 

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However, the SALT cap as a revenue generator has lost some potency since 2017, thanks to fresh workarounds. 

“Though lawmakers may not address the looming expirations this year, they should prepare for the upcoming expiration by weighing the trade-offs of each change the 2017 tax law made,” York said. “Lawmakers should cement into law a tax code that promotes growth and opportunity without worsening U.S. debt.”

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