ALLENDALE — Grand Valley State University has about the same number of employees earning more than $100,000 as Grand Rapids Community College, despite having 2,377 more full-timers and a budget more than three times as big.

The top of GVSU’s list is dominated by administrators. Of the 23 employees paid more than $150,000, four are professors.

One, management professor Jaideep Motwani, was paid $183,763 and was the fifth highest-paid employee. But a university spokeswoman said a number of factors play a role in how his salary was reported.

Motwani held the Esther Seidman Endowed Chair of Management, which is covered by donor money, and had extra curriculum development and management duties within the Seidman College of Business.

Most GVSU professors work on a 36-week schedule, though they can add spring and summer classes.

Administrators said faculty are expected to spend at least 42 to 45 hours working per week, teaching the equivalent of 12 credit hours and devoting about 18 hours for office hours, planning, preparation, and grading.

They also are expected to be involved with curriculum, service to the department and university, and scholarship that requires another eight to nine hours per week.

Faculty are occasionally offered overload classes, at $1,800 for a three-credit course. A department chair can earn up to $10,000 more, and professors can make 10 percent to 12.5 percent of salary for summer classes.

The university doubled its enrollment in five years prior and spent on more staff to catch up.

Salaries for all employees were frozen this year, and they raised their health care contribution from 13 percent to 20 percent of the cost.

Provost Gayle Davis last month sent employees a memo saying union employees are scheduled to receive a 2 percent raise next year, and university leaders are planning to recommend trustees approve an increase for non-union employees, which include professors.

Vice President Matt McLogan said it is too early to tell if that recommendation will be for the same 2 percent, but it is expected to come before trustees in July.

McLogan pointed out differences between the colleges, saying more than nine in 10 GVSU faculty members have a doctoral degree or its equivalent, compared to 12 percent at GRCC.

GVSU’s general fund budget is about $270 million, while GRCC’s is about $100 million.

University employees have less-expensive health insurance, and their pensions are not tied to the state system, which this year requires schools to pay in an amount equal to 24 percent of each employee’s salary.

“It’s really very difficult to compare the two institutions,” McLogan said. “We get 17 percent of our funding from the state, but community colleges have state aid as well as taxing districts. They are much more reliant on the taxpayers.”

Why The Press looked at $100,000 salaries

State lawmakers set the mark last year when they required K-12 school districts to prominently post on websites the list of employees making $100,000 or more. Public universities are not covered by the law, but both GRCC and GVSU provided The Press with salary lists based on 2010 W-2 tax forms.

“When I came to West Michigan, it seemed that if your salary had surpassed that $100,000 threshold, there were questions about how much is too much,” GRCC President Steven Ender said. “It’s a benchmark that seemed to grab people’s attention.”

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E-mail Dave Murray: dmurray@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterDMurray