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WEBSTER GROVES — Chancellor Beth Stroble’s reported compensation grew to more than $1 million in 2022, including a bonus of more than $120,000, as financial problems worsened at Webster University.

In an email last week to the university’s faculty and staff, Board Chair Sumit Verma noted that Stroble and President Julian Schuster’s pay for the 2022 calendar year, the most recent publicly available, included performance bonuses from the previous year, and future years were unlikely to include such bonuses.

“It is important for you to also know the chancellor, president and board agreed that — given the financial situation of the university — performance awards in subsequent years were reduced and/or eliminated entirely, regardless of how other goals may have been performed,� Verma said.

Moreover, Stroble voluntarily gave up about $104,000 of her deferred compensation that year when she decided to retire.

The details were revealed last week when the university’s most recent tax documents were made public. Tax reporting for nonprofits like Webster University is typically delayed as part of the Internal Revenue Service filing process. The documents reflect the school's 2022-2023 fiscal year, but pay only for calendar year 2022.

The university declined to release pay for the 2023 calendar year.

The tax filings highlight the continuing challenges facing the university, which saw administrator pay balloon over the past decade, even as enrollment fell by 50% and the institution lost $167 million in revenue.

University leaders, though, point to the university’s recent gains in enrollment and say Webster is on the rebound.

“Great days are ahead for Webster University,� Verma said in the email to faculty and staff.

Enrollment improved this past school year, but finances remained a problem. The university plans to use more than $30 million in endowment funds, typically earmarked for research, professorships and scholarships, to meet a loan obligation and improve its financial stature.

Meanwhile, morale at the Webster Groves-based institution worsened. Faculty, staff and students grew more frustrated with the board and leaders’ lack of transparency surrounding administrators’ compensation after a series of reports from the Post-Dispatch. It prompted a public callout, vote of no confidence and a protest.

The mounting pressure and media attention led Stroble, who had served at Webster for 15 years, to announce her resignation in December. She is taking a sabbatical, and her retirement is slated to take effect on June 30. A search for her replacement is underway.

Stroble will forfeit $629,000 by choosing to retire, financial documents show. Neither the board nor the university have confirmed if she will receive a salary when she returns in the fall as “chancellor emeritus.� She’s expected to focus on alumni relations and fundraising in that role.

The tax filings show that nearly all of the university’s highest-paid administrators received more money in 2022. But total compensation for Schuster, the president, fell 9% from the previous year to $778,133. Chief Financial Officer Rick Meyer, who recently retired, also saw an 18% decline to $160,962.

Stroble’s pay increased 2% from the previous year, when she received $992,000.

The documents showed that contributions to the university in 2022-23 decreased by 78% — a result of COVID-19 pandemic funds ending.

They also revealed that her daughter, Emily Stroble, earned $48,084 as a university employee in 2022. Emily Stroble’s LinkedIn page shows she is employed as a student access coordinator. She was first hired in December 2021 as a department assistant for financial aid.

Webster did not disclose her status in tax filings during her first year of employment. Spokesman Patrick Giblin said Emily Stroble’s gross compensation for that year was below the IRS threshold — $10,000 — for reporting a family member of a key employee.

He declined to disclose how much she made that year, saying that information is confidential.

Beth Stroble’s husband, Paul Stroble, earned $15,000 for his work as a part-time adjunct professor at the university, where he has taught for 14 years. Webster has long reported his association with the university.

And the filings also reveal that the $1.9 million that was “misappropriated� and first disclosed in a recent audit was stolen I.T. equipment.

The university reported in its filings that it has added a surveillance camera and has started a database to track its equipment.

Editor's note: The most current Webster University tax form reflected 2022 calendar-year pay. This story has also been updated to reflect Stroble's loss of deferred compensation that year.