Executive Compensation at Liberty University (2022)

Liberty University (Liberty) – a private evangelical Christian university based in Lynchburg, Virginia – has been in the news quite a bit over the past few years.  Seems the US Department of Education has been investigating Liberty for violations related to the public reporting of campus crime.  Faced with a large fine (estimated to be $37 million), Liberty seems to be in the hot seat again (the Jerry Falwell, Jr sexual misconduct saga that resulted in Falwell’s resignation as President of the university hit the public forum in 2020), although $37 million is a drop in the bucket for Liberty who has more than $3 billion in net assets.

Key information about Liberty is summarized as follows:

• The campus has 7,000 acres with 177 buildings containing with more than 7 million square feet of space
• Approximately 16,000 students are “residential” students with about half living on campus
• More than 100,000 students take on-line classes
• Have 20 NCAA Division 1 programs with more than 500 student athletes
• More than 3,500 full and part-time faculty
• More than 350 residential programs (on campus)
• Tuition, room, board, and fees are about $43,000 annually or $172,000 for a 4-year degree

In 2022, Liberty reported total revenue of $1.6 billion, most of which came from tuition, room, board and fees ($1.5 billion).

Expenses totaled $1.2 billion in 2022 (not including $52 million in depreciation) with the largest expense reported to be compensation. 12,037 employees received $507 million in compensation, which equates to an average compensation of $42,000.  773 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation with the 25 most highly compensated reported to be:

• $3,461,234:  Danny H Freeze Jr, Head Coach, Football
• $1,368,036:  Ritchie L McCay, Head Coach, Basketball
• $1,048,277:  Jerry Prevo, Trustee, President
• $  867,312:  Ian McCaw, Director of Athletics
• $  605,587:  David Nasser, SVP, Spiritual Development
• $  500,932:  Ronald Kennedy, EVP for Enrollment and Marketing
• $  492,802:  Scott L Symons, Linebacker Coach
• $  292,987:  John Gauger, Chief Information Officer
• $  491,728:  David Corry, General Counsel/Secretary
• $  470,894:  Robert Ritz, CFO/Treasurer
• $  428,535:  Richard Austin, Tight Ends Coach
• $  396,424:  Mark F Horstemeyer, Dean, School of Engineering
• $  391,457:  Scott Hicks, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
• $  356,184:  Laura Wallace, EVP, HR
• $  300,194:  Craig Pettit, VP, Real Estate Management
• $  297,649:  Cindy Gaebe, SVP of Finance, Chief Investment Officer
• $  297,491:  Shon Muldrow, EVP, Inclusion Diversity and Equity
• $  281,207:  Daniel Deter, VP of Major Construction
• $  271,646:  Charles Spence, SVP, Facilities Management
• $  270,129:  Don Moon, SVP of Finance and Investment Management
• $  255,076:  Daniel Applewhite, Deputy General Counsel, Assistant Secretary
• $  250,709:  Shaun Akers, Online Provost
• $  235,856:  Lawrence Hine, SVP of Student Affairs
• $  209,510:  Jonathan Falwell, Trustee, Campus Pastor
• $  195,363:  Glenn Clary, EVP, Strategic Partnerships

23 of the 25 (92%) most highly compensated employees are male while 2 of the 25 (8%) are female.  The 10 most highly compensated employees are male.

David Nasser received a severance of $400,000.

The 2 most highly compensated employees were Danny H Freeze, the head football coach and Jr,  Ritchie L McCay, the head basketball coach who collectively received nearly $11 million from 2020-2022:

Danny H Freeze, Jr.:  Total Compensation 2020-2022: $7 million

• 2022:  $3,461,234
• 2021:  $2,071,985
• 2020: $1,138,306

Ritchie L McCay:  Total Compensation 2020-2022:  $4 million 

• 2022:  $1,368,036
• 2021:  $1,126,219
• 2020:  $1,121,422

Liberty paid for first class or charter travel, companion travel, personal services (i.e. maid, chauffeur, chef), health or social club dues or initiation fees, a residence for personal use or housing allowances, and made gross up payments or provided tax indemnifications.

The Form 990, Schedule L reports “Transactions with Interested Persons” reports the following loans made to interested persons:

In addition, transactions to interested persons include:

203 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation with the five (5) most highly compensated reported to be:

• $31.2 million:  Google, of Mountain View, CA for admissions leads
• $27.5 million:  Sodexo Management Inc – Liberty Uni Location, of Pittsburgh, PA for food service
• $ 7.2 million:  James R Vannoy Sons Construction Co, of Winston Salem, NC for construction
• $ 6.6 million:  Meta Platforms, of Chicago, IL for admission leads
• $ 6.4 million:  Sycom Technologies, of Richmond, VA for IT service management

To read the IRS Form 990 (2021 for the year ending June 30, 2022) click here.