At a meeting earlier this month, board members of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education heaped praise on Chancellor Frank Brogan for his accomplishments in his first year on the job and then extended his contract by year, to Sept. 30, 2017.

Along with that, they gave him a 3 percent raise.

That $9,825 pay bump moves Brogan's salary to $337,525 and firmly cements his ranking as having the highest base salary of all state government employees. That is more than one and a half times the governor's $187,818 statutorily provided salary.

Bloomsburg University President David Soltz received the largest of the executive pay raises granted in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education for this year, setting his salary at $248,707.

But Brogan wasn't the only executive in the state's 14-university system to receive a pay increase this year nor was his the largest. That honor goes to Bloomsburg University President David Soltz, who saw his salary jump by 13.2 percent or $29,078, to $248,707.

Soltz as well as West Chester University President Greg Weisenstein, who received a 9.7 percent or $24,257, to $273,440, "received essentially market adjustments in recognition of the fact their salaries were lower when they started," said system spokesman Kenn Marshall.

He added it moves their pay closer to the national average for similar public institutions, which last year was $273,255, according to a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

The rest of the university presidents who were eligible for raises received between a 3 and 4.5 percent increase. All of the presidents' raises, which were granted last month, were retroactive to July 1.

News of the increases came as a surprise to faculty union President Ken Mash, who is dealing with faculty members at Cheyney and East Stroudsburg unnerved by their universities' notice that layoffs might be coming at the end of this academic year.

He said nothing was said about any raises at the October meeting when board members lauded Brogan as "a leader who is articulate, who's out there and can intertwine his ideas with the Legislature and elected officials" and as a "transformative leader."

"We are very interested in seeing the specific sizes of the raises because as a state agency the system should be open and transparent," Mash said on Friday. "As a general rule, all university employees should be fairly compensated for the work that they do.

"The commonwealth must properly fund the State System of Higher Education so that students' tuition can be affordable, students can get the courses and services they desperately need, there are no faculty or staff layoffs, and all employees are fairly compensated," he said.

Since 2010, tuition at the 14 state universities has increased by nearly 18 percent, to $6,820, while the total amount of money devoted over that time to the salaries of presidents and chancellors has risen by nearly 23 percent to more than $3.6 million.

Still, Brogan's salary wouldn't have come close to cracking the top 150 in the nation among public university executives in the Chronicle of Higher Education executive pay survey for 2012-13.

Brogan's salary also ranks at the bottom when compared to those earned by the chief executives at Penn State, Pitt and Temple.

Penn State's President Eric Barron, who assumed the CEO post at this Big Ten school in May, earns a $800,000 base salary, plus a $200,000 retention payment, and this year he also received a $200,000 transitional payment.

Pitt's new Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, who came on board in August, receives a base salary of $525,000, with $100,000 a year in deferred compensation.

Temple's President Neil Theobald, who began his tenure in January 2013, receives a base salary of $450,000 plus $200,000 a year in deferred compensation.

The following is a list of the State System's 2014-15 presidential salaries and the dollar and percentage increase over their salaries for last year:

Name University 2014-15 $ Increase % Increase David Soltz Bloomsburg $248,707 $ 29,078 13.2% Geraldine Jones* California $206,845 $ 6,025 3.0% Phyllis Dawkins** Cheyney $201,125 Karen Whitney Clarion $239,096 $ 10,296 4.5% Marcia Welsh East Stroudsburg $245,192 $ 8,292 3.5% Julie Wollman Edinboro $240,560 $ 8,135 3.5% Michael Driscoll Indiana $294,580 $ 11,330 4.0% Carlos Vargas-Aburto** Kutztown $223,855 Michael Fiorentino Jr. Lock Haven $236,350 $ 9,090 4.0% Francis Hendricks Mansfield $217,350 $ 7,350 3.5% John Anderson Millersville $234,945 $ 7,945 3.5% George Harpster Jr.* Shippensburg $206,845 $ 6,025 3.0% Cheryl Norton Slippery Rock $239,861 $ 8,111 3.5% Greg Weisenstein West Chester $273,440 $ 24,247 9.7%

* Interim president

** Acting president