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Do IT this week: Layering
Lefton's total package will increase 9 percent
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Nov 20, 2009
Total compensation for Kent State President Lester Lefton could climb 9 percent to $612,350 this year under a contract trustees approved this week.
KSU trustee Chairman Patrick Mullin said trustees are ''very happy on all fronts'' with Lefton.
Mullin said the president is doing a good job of increasing enrollment and retention, which should lead to high graduation rates ''which is the end game for us.''
He said trustees ''benchmarked'' Lefton's contract against others in Ohio and na
tionwide.
''These [changes] are perfectly reasonable modifications that will bring his contract in line with other presidential contracts today,'' Mullin said at the trustees meeting.
Lefton is one of the highest paid publicly supported university presidents in Ohio, according to the industry newspaper Chronicle of Higher Education.
Ohio State President Gordon Gee is at the top with total compensation of about $1.3 million. Cleveland State moved closer to the top this summer with $530,000 in total compensation plus a performance bonus of $48,000 to $100,000 a year for new President Ronald Berkman.
Compensation includes base pay, performance and longevity bonuses and deferred compensation.
KSU trustees reopened Lefton's contract because he is in the fourth year of a five-year agreement. Trustees are required to signal whether they want the relationship to continue when the contract ends.
They agreed to extend Lefton's contract from June 2011 for another three years and automatically each year after that.
Trustees also elevated Lefton's yearly performance bonus from 20 to 25 percent of his base pay, which is $389,880 this year.
They agreed to stop paying $50,000 a year in deferred compensation starting in January. Instead they will give the president a $60,000 longevity bonus that will increase by $10,000 every July 1 thereafter. The bonus will be tied to measurements in enrollment, development and other areas.
In other changes, trustees:
• Increased Lefton's vacation from 20 days to 25 days this year and next and 30 days thereafter.
• Gave Lefton a new yearly payment of $15,000 to subsidize utilities and maintenance on his private house. He continues to receive a $50,000 yearly housing allowance. Trustees say he needs the house to entertain university guests and supporters. Unlike many universities in Ohio, KSU does not provide a home for the president.
• Agreed to make a one-time payment in September 2011 of $25,000 for painting, cleaning of furniture and rugs, and replacement of furniture that has been damaged at Lefton's home because of university use.
Other elements of Lefton's contract — including a new American-made car every two years and a one-year, fully paid sabbatical at the end of his presidency — remain unchanged.
Last year, Luis Proenza, president of the University of Akron, received $535,000 in base salary, bonuses and other payments.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
Total compensation for Kent State President Lester Lefton could climb 9 percent to $612,350 this year under a contract trustees approved this week.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 07:13 AM, 11/20/2009
we will charge what we want for as long as we want and you will pay.
Posted 07:19 AM, 11/20/2009
What in the h#LL is going on! Students are protesting in the streets due to tuition hikes and you give the President of a University a 9% RAISE! No raises for employees. Never mind if it wasn't for the employees he wouldn't have a job. This makes me sick to my stomach. These Presidents make more than The President of the United States!
Alliance, Oh
Posted 07:50 AM, 11/20/2009
'To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.' Edmund Burke . . .
I ended MY freshman year at K.S.U. with 55 quarter hour credits; having obtained placement credit for algebra. Also, Kent placed me out of one quarter of Freshman English! I transferred to Miami U. for sophomore year having heard so much good about them and bemoaning the foul N.E.O. weather. Miami I found to be a farse. For all of the blind-eyed Ohio-society believing in a public utopia under their control located in Oxford, I came to know a different reality. Three housing assignments following overflow during two quarters - none of those locations requested, plus having to submit my quarterly schedules four and five times before taking a default courseload of electives, the realization 'everybody' is cheating by using test files, and the rampant marijuana vendoring in the biggest and finest housing in Oxford jaded my purpose. But, and singularly, it was Miami's requirement I take that third quarter of freshman english (the one K.S.U. passed me on) that threw the stone from the scale. I'd have been a twelfth quarter finance major - ready to move to Columbus and into banking - taking a freshman level English course just to qualify to graduate. Wisened, I left M.U. following winter quarter under dubious acamemic circumstances, returned to K.S.U., graduated in the twelve quarters format, then obtained a M.B.A. from the Graduate School at The Ohio State University - a school with a philosophy similar to that which Kent possessed. Now in MY fifties, do I compalin about being unemployed? Yes, but rest assured if I had chosen the College President career path I'd sleep VERY well indeed.
Posted 07:50 AM, 11/20/2009
greedy people
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 08:37 AM, 11/20/2009
"students protesting in the streets over tuition"...yea right! where do some get their imagination?
The sky is falling...oh the humanity!!!!
Posted 08:53 AM, 11/20/2009
Here you go Jason read and you will learn....
University of California students protest 32 percent tuition increase
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/19/california.tuition.protests/index.html
Posted 09:10 AM, 11/20/2009
KSU's president is not the reason enrollment has increased this year. Lack of jobs, laid off workers, or basically lack of any other option for young people is the reason why enrollment has increased at ALL ohio universities.
The president should give the money back. Its not about talent. I could do that job no problem.
Posted 09:18 AM, 11/20/2009
I wonder how some of the former successful Presidents feel?
Of course, compared to some of the ungodly wages and bonuses that others get, this isn't too bad.
Posted 09:34 AM, 11/20/2009
Jason12
It's ignorant people like you who elected idiots to the presidency and the senate!
Watch the news! Students in CA ARE protesting in the streets.
Oh wait, you probably watch NBC news.
Highland Square, OH
Posted 09:38 AM, 11/20/2009
This is ridiculous. Does anyone else realize what this enrollment increase consists of? It's adults/nontraditional students and some of the high school rejects who are attending all of Kent's branch campuses. As David said, with the economy the way it is, ANYONE could do this. What a joke.
Can't wait to go to another Kent State basketball game AT KENT where the Akron students outnumber the Kent students 2 to 1!
uniontown, oh
Posted 09:46 AM, 11/20/2009
Why give him a raise, we got the wagon wheel (again).
Posted 09:50 AM, 11/20/2009
I don't care if enrollment quadrupled. Mr. Lefton should be taking a voluntary 10-20% reduction in salary and require his staff to do the same until unemployment reaches 6%.
Ohio's state universities are out of control. In Georgia, residents can get a first class education at dozens of state universities for less than $5,000 a year.
Posted 09:57 AM, 11/20/2009
When are Universities going to join the REAL world? They give big bonuses on the backs of students, then fewer students can afford college. Then they spend millions of dollars to attract more students - all on the backs of student fees. It is time that Universities figure out the laws of supply and demand! Then we have universities within 20 miles of each other competing for the same few student dollars. WAKE UP PEOPLE! This is sheer STUPIDITY!
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 10:12 AM, 11/20/2009
Nice job KSU - as an alumnus you will NEVER GET ANOTHER CENT FROM ME nor will you get any other type of support. 9% is an outright insult to every alumni and student.
chagrin falls, oh
Posted 10:18 AM, 11/20/2009
I'm glad my children are out of college. I'm outraged that the universities that we support with our tax dollars, for the benefit of our students who cannot afford private colleges, are giving these kinds of raises.
The "average Joe's", if they are lucky enough to still have jobs, have taken pay cuts or have not had pay raises in a couple of years.
I see no reason to pay these kinds of bonuses to the upper brass. I'd like to see Lefton publicly defend his right and entitlement to this bonus.
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 11:12 AM, 11/20/2009
grasping at straws again I see. A 32% tuition increase in California has little if nothing to do with a 9% wage increase in kent, Ohio. So, quit covering up your demoguogery with your fake self-image of having global awareness.
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 11:14 AM, 11/20/2009
Donald - when are you and people like you going to join the real world. Dr. Lefton earned and deserves this raise.
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 11:15 AM, 11/20/2009
Traditionalist - I could swaer you spewed the same threat to The University of Akron not too long ago. Gee, what will all those universities that you attended do without your millions? What a phony!
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 11:36 AM, 11/20/2009
@ jason12. Your correct. I did say the same thing to the U of A recently. I received my Bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Akron 1994 and my masters degree from Kent State Univ. in 1998. As such, I am an Alumnus of both institutions. And I have supported both - up until now.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 12:05 PM, 11/20/2009
@ jason12: Judging from the multitude of venemous posts you place on the ABJ - and putting my degrees to good use, I would say you're an angry little man (or woman, perhaps?).
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 12:54 PM, 11/20/2009
Traditionalist - do your many degrees help you to understand the word, projection?
Time to take a look at the man in the mirror, I'd say.
Highland Square, OH
Posted 12:57 PM, 11/20/2009
@ Traditionalist
Correct. He's nuts.
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 12:59 PM, 11/20/2009
@David - I'm sure with your omniscience you could run KSU much more efficiently. Why don't you take the rest of the know-it-alls from this site with you? I think it would be riveting to watch the university soar with the eagles once you and your ilk are at the helm.
Farmington, NM
Posted 01:33 PM, 11/20/2009
Complain all you want. This will not change. Its a done deal. All the flack that you can give will just role off his back. Typical. Like a politician...
Posted 01:45 PM, 11/20/2009
Jason12:
Typical liberal response. When the facts are against you, go for the personal attack!
Akron, Oh
Posted 02:03 PM, 11/20/2009
Test
Green, OH
Posted 02:24 PM, 11/20/2009
The outrage should be focused where it belongs - on the KSU TRUSTEES. They are the ones offering these big rewards.
Face it. Higher education is just another form of BIG BUSINESS in the USA.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 02:29 PM, 11/20/2009
No Jason12 I don't understand. I'm a simpleton! But thanks for the Michael Jackson quote. That's deep!
You do attack on the personal level quite a bit. Are you certain that you used that whole "projection issue" that you referenced appropriately?
Posted 03:20 PM, 11/20/2009
Shameful. An honorable person would, of course, refuse to accept this unearned money stolen from the public treasury and no honorable trustee would ever offer it. The honorable thing to do is for the president and the entire board to resign in shame. But they will not, since they have forgotten how to blush.
Orrville, Oh
Posted 05:37 PM, 11/20/2009
Reality demands KSU students pay Kent State President $612,350 with money derived from wages or independent business profit!
Tepplin, DC
Posted 10:04 PM, 11/20/2009
Gee and Proenza at least gave their most recent raises back to the students. Lefton should follow suit.
Alliance, Oh
Posted 05:35 AM, 11/21/2009
We have a discussion by consumers centered on consumption. Those either demanding a quiet check-out line, or those who brandish weapons against hapless fellow-shoppers to improve their ranking in the queue. Consumers still they remain. Only one commentator struck a chord that reasonates: the call for the across the board resignation of the Trustees and top Administrator. But, would that provide a cure? Entire nations have been reorganized using that tactic - most often with bloodshed - with the result not always as the planner intended (a certain uprising in 18th century France, and one in 20th century Russia comes to mind - there have been others in Mexico, Bolivia, etc.). But, Watson, here WE sit, comfortable in OUR belief WE cannot be touched. A few facts...
Presently, the United States economy is experiencing de-flation (-0.18%). Don't rush out and put a down-payment on a new Bentley just yet! The overall inflation rate since January 1973 is 395.64%. Staggering - how come water hasn't boiled from the ocean? Close to home, the cost of Fees at K.S.U. for three quarters in the year 1973-74 was $804.00 using 1973 as a base year. In terms of 2009 dollars the equivalent is $3181.00. This assumes a then full courseload of 12 credits per quarter. The actual cost of Fees in 2009 dollars is $4363.00 per semester assuming a full courseload of 12 credits per semester. Multiply by two, this becomes $8726.00 per year. That sounds about right. WHAT???!!! This represents an inflation of over 1,011% since 1973, or, that cost of basic post secondary education has risen more rapidly than price levels in the overall economy by a significant amount (humans can't smell their own halitosis (why?), and education costs are factored into the overall rate (so...)). You know, in a democracy we all deserve one (and only one) donut. Once received, we are charged to see to the responsible consumption of that donut.
akron, oh
Posted 09:30 AM, 11/21/2009
ohio state universities are 50% more expensive than national average--- and very average schools! Once again who,s paying the rent!
akron, oh
Posted 07:33 PM, 11/21/2009
Lefton is known at Kent as "Loot". Loot does not care about students or alumni, just about the numbers and money it will bring him. Loot left Tulane when it was destroyed by Katrina. He has no loyalty to anything but the all mighty dollar.
