This week's issue of The City Paper features snapshots of the financial state of Nashville's largest private universities — Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb, Fisk and Trevecca Nazarene. In addition to the tidbits featured there — Vanderbilt's endowment still tops $3 billion and R.C. Mathews was the highest-paid contractor at both Belmont and VU in the year ended June 30, 2011 — we thought it would be interesting to dig a little deeper into the compensation sections of these schools' annual financial statements.

To view all the data from the various Forms 990, click here. Among the things that stood out to us:

• Of the 41 people listed, exactly one is a woman.
• The combined pay of the presidents of Belmont, Lipscomb, Fisk and Trevecca would have ranked seventh on Vanderbilt's list.
• Five of Vanderbilt's 10 people on the list and four executives at the other schools are in health care.

We also thought we'd compare how the schools' compensation packages stack up with Middle Tennessee's public companies. Here are the quasi-peers when it comes to compensation for each university:

• Vanderbilt's top five earners pocketed $16.7 million in the year ended June 30, 2011. At shoe and hat seller Genesco, which had 2011 revenues of almost $2.3 billion, the total 2011 pay for its top five execs was almost $17.1 million.
• At Belmont, the five best-paid workers earned a combined $3.48 million. The closest number among Nashville-area public companies was Kirkland's, with $3.39 million. Kirkland's had 2011 sales of $430 million.
• Lipscomb's top five earned a total of $1.35 million, a little less than the C-suite at auto insurer First Acceptance. That number also is close to the combined $1.3 million for the top fives at Fisk and Trevecca.

And, finally, here's The City Paper Backpage from this week's issue. A larger version is here.