Departing University of New Hampshire chief fundraiser Peter Weiler's $300,000-a-year salary is drawing criticism from the faculty union president, but support from university officials.

“They paid quite a bit to get him from Ohio State, and I personally haven't seen any results,” Deanna D. Wood, president of the UNH chapter, American Association of University Professors, said Saturday.

“The university has been claiming how poor they are and how little money there is, but I personally am curious as to why they would pay so much for someone who obviously wasn't planning on staying,” she said.

Weiler is leaving for the University of Maryland, where he begins Aug. 22 as the new vice president for university relations and president of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation. He joined UNH in fall 2010.

UNH President Mark W. Huddleston defended Weiler's salary as vice president for advancement and president of the UNH Foundation. “Our number-one fundraising priority is student scholarships, and we expect to raise many times more than the combined salaries of our fundraisers for the benefit of students,” Huddleston said in an email response.

Edward C. Dupont, chairman of the University System of New Hampshire board of trustees, said the $300,000 was significantly less than Weiler earned at his last post at Ohio State.

Weiler, who made $299,350 at UNH in calendar year 2011, earned $415,000 in his last year at Ohio State as senior vice president for university development.

“We compete in a national environment for academic leaders and certainly when it comes to running this type of operation, you do a national search and we were lucky to have Peter come here and he came here making less money than he made at his previous job,” Dupont said.

“We do the best we can to bring the most talented candidate to the campus when we fill positions like this,” he said.

He said it would be unfair to compare the fundraiser's salary to the average UNH faculty member's $96,388 salary.

“It's a very different job, a very different market, a very different skill set that is needed to run a foundation and raise money to support the institution,” he said.

But faculty union president Wood said, “I never saw any results of the work that he did, so I can't really comment with any personal knowledge, but I was surprised at the salary. It is very high for an institution like UNH, but it has to have board approval, so presumably they thought he was worth the risk and presumably they were wrong.”

Both Huddleston and Dupont said that Peter Weiler established the organization and infrastructure UNH needs to substantially increase its fundraising success over time.

“Under his leadership we entered the quiet phase of a capital campaign a year ago this July 1,” Huddleston said.

“He's (Weiler's) done an incredible job of repositioning the foundation in bringing the right people to start the next campaign.” Dupont said. “... That was part of the reason Peter was brought in, to begin the process of the next fundraising campaign. From my perspective, he did accomplish that.

“I'm obviously, and the board is obviously, disappointed that he's leaving at this point, but UNH and the board will get to work on finding somebody that's just as talented ... and pick up where Peter left off,” he said.

“Fundraising is important to us with the challenges to state funding and the students who need help to attend college and the foundation plays an important role in that,” Dupont said.

Huddleston said Saturday UNH has not yet begun its national search to replace Weiler, but Dupont said the school can begin at any time and does not need approval from the board of trustees to proceed.

Meanwhile, UNH faculty members vote today and Tuesday on a new contract after both sides ratified a factfinder's report, Wood said.

The USNH board of trustees meets June 19 and is expected to vote on the contract as well.

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Denis Paiste may be reached at dpaiste@unionleader.com.