It’s a very nice job to have.

Time reports.

College Presidents Rake in Big Perks on Top of High Salaries

Firing a leader is supposed to end a crisis, not make it worse. But when the board of trustees at an Illinois college voted to get rid of the institution’s president after word began to get out about extravagant spending and secret insider contracts, it quietly gave him three-quarters of a million dollars’ worth of severance pay.

The deal to ease the departure President Robert Breuder’s exit from of the scandal-ridden College of DuPage, which is now also under federal and state investigation for alleged misdeeds including falsifying enrollment figures, has focused attention on a range of lavish perks given to university and college administrators around the country.

“Many of these agreements are done in secret, denying the public the right to weigh in on the appropriateness of such generous packages, while students suffocate under non-dischargeable debt,” said a report from the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus. The full Senate voted to cap such buyouts to no more than 30% of final earnings for any president making $200,000 or more, but the measure was defeated in the House after lobbying from the Illinois Council of Community College Presidents.

Breuder, who had been earning nearly half a million dollars a year before he went on medical leave in April, didn’t get just a massive buyout. His benefits as head of the community college included a $21,000-a-year housing allowance and a $10,000-a-year car allowance, among other things, the legislative report said. The Chicago Tribune also disclosed that Breuder and other administrators spent more than $190,000 on food, Champagne, wine, and expensive vodka in the three years before he abruptly went on medical leave, which allowed him to continue to collect severance.