Perks sweeten pot for Mass.

college chiefs - Eagle-Tribune

Like almost all other Massachusetts public university and college leaders, UMass Boston Chancellor
Keith Motley is entitled to a housing allowance or house, a car, and free tuition for himself and his
family members, and can cash in all of his unused vacation days and 20 percent of any unused sick
days on retirement.
If he were to be fired without cause, Motley and other chancellors of the UMass system would be
able to return to faculty jobs at a guaranteed annual salaries of between $240,000 and $480,000,
according to their contracts. If they quit, the chancellors of UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass
Lowell, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School each could also take up to a year's
sabbatical -- a type of leave for academics to do research related to their work -- at full pay.
"That sounds absolutely ridiculous," said Daniel Baxter, a sophomore from Somerville majoring in
information technology at UMass. "For doing nothing for a year? That's insane in any industry."
In fact, in higher education, benefits like these are not unusual. But they're coming under increased
scrutiny in Massachusetts.
Presidents and other top administrators at state schools are provided houses, cars, free tuition for
their spouses and children, paid-for dues at country clubs and other perks, according to documents
obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. Some are eligible for bonuses of up
to $201,000 per year, based on meeting performance goals the public can't see.
These revelations come as many of the schools continue to increase tuition and appeal to the
Legislature for more money, and as Gov. Charlie Baker has been pushing them to cut costs.
They also follow the disclosure that the former president of Bridgewater State University was paid
nearly $270,000 for unused sick days and vacation time when he retired, and was given a consulting
contract on top of his $183,421 annual state pension.
"For most regular people who don't have access to this sort of thing who pay the bills associated
with their kids' tuition or their own this is the kind of thing that really grates on people," Baker said
in an interview, referring to the presidents' and chancellors' benefits. "There's a credibility issue
here."
Cars, houses and more
Accrued sick time and vacation payments aren't the only perks that higher education leaders are
entitled to. Presidents of Massachusetts community colleges also are in line for up to six months'
salary in the event they're fired without cause, their contracts show. For the presidents of Greenfield
Community College and Salem State University, and the chancellors of all the University of
Massachusetts campuses, it's as much as one year's wages.
The UMass campuses also put as much as $47,000 a year apiece into annuities, on top of base
salaries, for their chancellors, letting them set that money aside for their retirements.

These benefits are common on American campuses. More than 60 percent of presidents at public
and private colleges get all or part of their housing provided, for example, and 75 percent get cars or
car allowances, according to the College and University Professional Association for Human
Resources. In Massachusetts, almost all of them get both.
Carlos Santiago, the state's commissioner of higher education, said the housing provided to
chancellors and presidents is often used in their official roles for entertaining. But he has ordered an
investigation of the rules governing sick and vacation time.
"This really doesn't help, obviously, our message of high quality and affordable education," he said.
Such benefits extend beyond chancellors and presidents. If they're removed for any reason, after at
least four years on the job, state university and community college administrators are entitled to as
much as six months' pay; administrators at UMass get up to one year, depending on how long
they've worked there.
They also get at least 15 days of sick leave nearly three times the median number of sick days for
American workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics plus 22 vacation days at the
community colleges and at least 20 at UMass, twice the U.S. median.
Most can also carry over up to 64 vacation days, and, when they retire, cash those in for their full
value. And for many, if they retire with more than 64, those days are added to any unused sick days,
for which they can get one-fifth of the cash value.
Retirement cash-out
When Bridgewater State President Dana Mohler-Faria left his post, he cashed in carried-over
vacation and sick days for $269,984, as the Boston Business Journal first reported. He also was given
a contract to work as a consultant for $100,000 a year, but has since agreed to give up getting paid
for that role. Mohler-Faria didn't respond to a phone message.
When he steps down in July, Holyoke Community College President William Messner will be eligible,
as of the most recent pay period, for $44,710 in unused vacation and sick time, the college reports.
Only 12 percent of employers nationwide pay departing workers for any portion of unused sick time,
according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
And few if any other Massachusetts state employees can convert excess vacation days into sick days
and get paid for them. Nor does this perk apply to people who work at any of the UMass campuses.
"We're looking into that benefit because we have questions about whether it should be what it is,"
said Santiago. "We're trying to figure out why it started in the first place. ... We haven't really got
the best of answers at this point."
The UMass system is also reviewing its policies governing vacation days, spokesman Robert
Connolly said, though he said that any changes for union employees would have to be negotiated.
Meehan silent
Spokesmen for the chancellors of UMass Amherst, Boston, and the medical school referred most
questions to Marty Meehan, the system's president, or didn't respond to repeated requests for

comment.
Meehan, whose job includes negotiating the chancellor's contracts, declined through Connolly to be
interviewed. Other administrators or spokespeople for their schools were also asked to comment.
Most declined.
UMass "seeks to spend public funds as wisely as possible" and "strives to establish compensation
and benefit policies that allow it to attract and retain outstanding faculty, administrators and staff,"
Connolly said in a written statement.
College presidents know what pay and perquisites are available on the national market and have full
freedom to switch employers, said Raymond Cotton, a lawyer with the Boston-based firm MintzLevin who advises both presidents and boards of trustees in contract negotiations.
But the idea that good candidates won't apply for college presidencies without generous incentives
is hard to prove, said Saranna Thornton, a labor economist at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
"The people who keep citing this don't ever point to an empirical study that shows they have to offer
these particular salaries or these particular benefits to get talent," Thornton said.
Free tuition
Among the standard perks for Massachusetts public university and college administrators are free
tuition at their own or any other state school for themselves, their spouses and dependent children
who meet admission standards.
That's a benefit that increasingly touches a nerve among parents and a tuition-paying public
squeezed by the ever-rising price of college, which has prompted scrutiny of free tuition for
university employees in states including Arizona, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Asked how much it costs, statewide, the Massachusetts departments of Education, Higher
Education, and Administration and Finance couldn't provide a figure.
Though no money changes hands when tuition is waived, "if they admit one less paying student, then
the school is losing money on it," Thornton said.
Bonus goals hidden
Nearly four in 10 presidents and chancellors in U.S. schools are entitled to bonuses, the consulting
firm Yaffe & Company reports. In Massachusetts, all the UMass chancellors are due them, adding as
much as 30 percent to their salaries. That works out to a range of up to $71,012 for UMass Boston's
Motley, to $201,000 for UMass Medical's Michael Collins.
Connolly said the public can't see the performance goals on which bonuses are based because
they're part of chancellors' personnel files, and neither the universities nor the system central office
would disclose how much money in bonuses the chancellors have received, saying they weren't able
to find those numbers over the course of more than a week.
Figures obtained from the state comptroller's office, however, show that Motley, Collins, and UMass
Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy last year received payments in excess of their base
salaries by at least the full amount of the bonuses for which they were eligible.

Overriding a veto from Gov. Baker, the Legislature last year added more than $5 million to his
proposed budget for the UMass system, though it declined to restore another $11 million the
universities requested. A new proposal would pump an additional $95 million a year into UMass; the
governor has proposed a smaller increase.
"They just go back to the taxpayers and the thing they always use is the threat that costs will go up if
their demands aren't met," said Paul Craney, executive director of the conservative-leaning
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. "The money's not real to them. That's the problem."
The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (www.necir.org) is a nonprofit news outlet
affiliated based at WGBH (PBS/NPR) in Boston and affiliated with Boston University. Boston
University, a competitor of Massachusetts public colleges, does not participate in NECIR story
selection or the Center's editorial process. NECIR interns Bret Hauff and Shaz Sajadi contributed to
this report.
School&President/Chancellor&Salary&Bonus&Housing&Car provided&If fired w/o cause&Free
family tuition
UMass Medical&Michael Collins&$670,000&Up to $201,000&House provided&Yes&Up to 1 year's
pay&Yes
UMass Amherst&Kumble Subbaswamy&$450,000&Up to $90,000&House provided&Yes&Up to 1
year's pay&Yes
UMass Lowell&Jacqueline Moloney&$373,259&Up to $74,652&None&Yes&Up to 1 year's pay&Yes
UMass Boston&J. Keith Motley&$355,059&Up to $71,012&$32,000&Yes&Up to 1 year's pay&Yes
Salem State University&Patricia Meservey&$270,243&None& $18,000&Yes&Up to 1 year's
pay&Yes
Framingham State University&F. Javier Cevallos&$255,000&None& House provided &Yes&Up to 6
months' pay&Yes
Bunker Hill Community College&Pam Y. Eddinger &$207,000&None&$18,000&Yes&Up to 6
months' pay&Yes
Northern Essex Community College&Lane Glenn& $193,088&None&$18,000&Yes&Up to 6 months'
pay&Yes