Today we’re reviewing a huge batch of data about the University of Texas at Austin: how much it’s paying its employees, and how much money it’s accepting from foreign sources in China, Saudi Arabia and more.

 

Question 1: Who are UT Austin’s highest-paid employees?

 

There were 32 people who earned $500,000 or more last year. 

 

Like most colleges the highest paid employees are in athletics.

 

Our records only show the part of their salary that counts toward the pension they’ll eventually get once they retire. For football coach Stephen Sarkisian that was $3.3 million last year, but news reports show he actually got $10.6 million in salary.

 

Jim Schlossnagle, the baseball coach, made $1.8 million. Victor Schaefer made $1.2 million coaching women’s basketball and outearned Rodney Terry, who made $880,000 for men’s basketball.

 

The athletics director Christopher Del Conte made $2.2 million.

 

Charles Fraser made $1.8 million as a medical professor. Two other medical professors made at least $1 million.

 

Question 2: What about the employees at the state level running the UT system?

 

There’s another 10 people there making over $500,000, plus 251 more making six figures.

 

Chancellor James Milliken made just over $1 million last year. That’s double what he used to make when he was chancellor at the City University of New York.

 

William Murphy made almost $1 million. He’s the CEO of University Lands, which manages the 2.1 million acres of land the UT system owns.

 

Then two executive vice presidents making $700-800k.

 

In total there’s 45 vice presidents and vice chancellors running the university system.

 

Question 3: We also talk each year about foreign funding to the school. What was that worth last year?

 

UT Austin has accepted $541 million in foreign funding dating all the way back to 1987.

 

In 2024,  UT Austin accepted $23.5 million in foreign funding. More than the $18 million they accepted in 2023. But still much less than over $70 million received in 2022.

 

The single largest payment last year was $1.5 million the school accepted from China in July. Part of $2.2 million from China last year.

 

$5.8 million from Saudi Arabia. A lot of that was from Saudi Aramco, the government-owned oil company, to pay tuition for Saudi students.

 

Those are both countries that use torture and give very few rights to their citizens, so it’s a bit worrying when they’re trying to buy influence in American education.

 

Question 4: How does that foreign funding compare to other colleges in Texas?

 

The only other college in TX that accepted funding from China last year was Baylor, and that was only one $350,000 contract.

 

But there’s definitely other schools that accept more funding overall. Texas A&M has accepted almost $1 billion from the Qatar Foundation in the last 10 years to fund its engineering campus there, but the university says it will shut it down by 2028.

 

 

Right now the DETERRENT Act in Congress would tighten up the rules for disclosing gifts. Colleges would be required to report grants of at least $50,000, not $250k like now. And disclose everything of at least $1 from countries like China, Iran, Russia, North Korea