I suspect that it's a trade of prestige for cash. If you're the president of any of those schools, the prestige follows you for life. You can always trade dow

I suspect that it's a trade of prestige for cash. If you're the president of any of those schools, the prestige follows you for life. You can always trade down on reputation for an increase in pay later. They will always have capable people willing to do the job, and universities are institutions where the head really doesn't have much power. (View it as the managing partner in a law firm, rather than the CEO of an industrial company. The managing partner works on the good graces of the governed. University presidents can only do what the tenured faculty allows.)