University presidents at Utah's two largest public institutions are falling short of the banner salaries of their peers in other states, according to an annual compensation survey released Monday.

University of Utah President Michael Young's compensation package of $410,000 this academic year and Utah State University President Stan Albrecht's $300,398 in total earnings are far behind the compensation offered at the highest paying public institutions, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education survey.

David Roselle, president of the University of Delaware, topped the list of public universities with a $979,571 annual compensation package. The highest paid president in the nation was Audrey K. Doberstein at Wilmington College, a private institution, who earned $2.7 million.

Overall, the survey of 183 public research universities and 670 private four-year institutions turned up 112 presidents who had compensation packages totaling at least $500,000. The number of public-university presidents making at least that amount nearly doubled over last year, according to the Chronicle's survey.

Like most college presidents, both Young and Albrecht receive the use of a house and a car. Even so, the two Utah presidents earn less than the $374,846 median pay at comparable public doctoral institutions across the nation, making it difficult to recruit from a national market, Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Rich Kendell said.

"We're just not even in that league in terms of our competitiveness," Kendell said. "We need to do anything we can to retain the presidents that we have."

While Kendell said Utah's university presidents have never asked him for a raise, the state's lagging salaries have limited searches for six new presidents in the last three years. The lower salaries mean there's little chance of Utah luring away a sitting president from another state. In fact, Kendell said, many provosts, who are the second in command at a university, in other states already make more than the U. president.

"The salary heightened our awareness that we're out of the national competition. We are trying to stay somewhere in the middle," Kendell said.

But increasing presidential pay would be difficult, he added. "I'm not sure that it's feasible right now."

Coralie Alder, spokeswoman at the U., said Young's presidential pay ranks even lower when it is compared only against the median pay of leaders at other research institutions with comprehensive health services and a hospital. The Chronicle has reported that presidents of universities with medical schools and teaching hospitals generally earn 35 percent more than leaders of other doctoral institutions.