Isn't it great to be a Michigan Wolverine?

It is for University President Mary Sue Coleman.

She receives the highest salary of any president of a public university, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education released yesterday.

Coleman will make $724,604 during the 2005-06 academic year in pay and benefits, the survey said. She makes just over $4,000 more than the second-highest paid university president, David Roselle of the University of Delaware. University of Texas President Mark Yudof placed third with $693,677.

Coleman's 3.5 percent pay increase from last year comes at a time when the state is slashing funding for the University. Facing a budget crisis, the state has cut 13 percent of its total funding since 2002. To counteract the cuts, the University upped tuition by 12.3 percent last summer.

Coleman has a history of refusing or limiting her salary increases. In her first year as president, she refused any increase in salary because of the state budget cuts. In her second year, she limited her salary increase to 2 percent. But this year, she accepted the full 3.5-percent raise the University Board of Regents offered her.

Did Coleman consider foregoing the 3.5 percent raise this year?

"I didn't," she said yesterday. "The regents wanted to show that they appreciate the job I'm doing."

Coleman said that when she came to the University in 2002, the regents conducted extensive research on the salaries of the leaders of comparable universities to determine her salary. The comparison of peer institutions also included private schools, where presidents traditionally earn more than their public counterparts. Nine presidents of private schools made more than $900,000 in total compensation in the 2004-05 academic year, the last year for which data are available.

The regents also wanted to make sure Coleman's salary would be competitive enough to keep her at the University, University spokeswoman Julie Peterson said.

Lee Bollinger, who left his post as University president in 2001 to lead Columbia University, a private institution, earned $326,550 in base salary the year before he resigned, significantly less than Coleman, who earns $500,000 in base salary.

Bollinger, who left after only five years of service, was considered a highly capable University president.

"The University of Michigan competes not only against other top public universities but also against private institutions," Peterson said.

The contract the regents gave Coleman in 2002 to lure her to the University included a $100,000-per-year bonus if she stayed at the University for five years. The survey's figure of $724,604 includes that bonus, which she won't receive until she completes her fifth year in 2007.

Coleman oversees a budget of $4.6 billion, which includes $750 million in sponsored research each year, Peterson said.

"The salary of our president is appropriate, given the significance of the job she has been asked to do," Peterson said.

Coleman has been generous in donating to the University. To kick off the Michigan Difference campaign, which aims to raise $2.5 billion in donations, she and husband Kenneth Coleman pledged $500,000 to the University, the largest gift of any of her predecessors. The Colemans are still paying that donation at a clip of $100,000 a year, Mary Sue Coleman said.

Coleman makes about twice as much as Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon, who will earn $340,000 this year.

The University also provides Coleman with a car and her three-story house at 815 South University Ave.