There is absolutely no way a university is able to accurately judge the valuation of its chief information office vs competition. And no business at scale ever

There is absolutely no way a university is able to accurately judge the valuation of its chief information office vs competition. And no business at scale ever operates that way. Once your enterprise (including schools) is old enough, and the politics drop the meritocracy, all it takes is knowing the right people to be guaranteed gratuitous compensation regardless of job performance. Even without that, the only way you are going to weigh alternative candidates for any chief officer position would be to poach from competing businesses with the same department chair titles. The market is so limited on people who ever get those kinds of jobs anywhere to begin with that it is unreasonable to expect to ever be able to accurately claim if they are or are not "worth it". Success is more about aligning with the overall vision of the business and not causing conflict more than individualized performance. You could be worth a tenth your salary but as long as the other officers like you and the board does too you are set as long as you don't break anything.