After arriving at RPI, Jackson's salary and benefits expanded from $423,150 in 1999–2000 to over $1.3 million in 2006–2007. In 2011 Jackson's salary was $1.75 million. In 2006–07, and it is estimated she received another $1.3 million from board seats at several major corporations. The announcement of layoffs at RPI in December 2008 led some in the RPI community to question whether the institute should continue to compensate Jackson at that level, maintain a residence in the Adirondacks for her, and continue to support a personal staff. Her presidency created much controversy in the student body; in 2011, the RPI Student Senate passed a motion to request that the administration to review her performance and consider her removal due to a “broad sense of dissatisfaction and low morale among students, faculty, staff and alumni, particularly in opposition to the Institute and President Jackson’s leadership" and her "top down leadership, [and] abrasive style."