Record enrollment, fundraising and construction are among the reasons Ohio University’s Board of Trustees decided to give OU President Roderick McDavis a 7.8 percent raise and bonus.
Record enrollment, fundraising and construction are among the reasons Ohio University’s Board of Trustees decided to give OU President Roderick McDavis a 7.8 percent raise and bonus.
McDavis, in his tenth year as president, sat alongside board members as they voted unanimously to raise his base salary by $33,850 — to $465,000 — and give him a bonus of $85,000. That brings McDavis’ total compensation for the 2014-15 academic year to $550,000, before retirement pay and other monies are factored in.
Historically, the 7.8 percent pay raise is substantial for McDavis. At last year’s August board retreat, he received a 2.9 percent increase.
Deborah McDavis, the President's wife, also received a pay raise to $35,000, up from $31,200.
The vote came during the trustees’ annual retreat, held at the university's new Dublin, Ohio campus.
McDavis' 2014-15 salary and bonus equal the base salary of OU’s highest paid employee: Saul Phillips, OU’s new men’s basketball coach.
"This (pay raise) really does reflect your work this year," David Brightbill, the board's chairman, said to McDavis.
Brightbill highlighted McDavis’ leadership on the university’s capital improvement plan; the Promise Lives Campaign meeting its $450 million goal 14 months ahead of schedule; the advancement of the plan to increase faculty and staff salaries; the university’s record enrollment this fall; and OU moving toward implementing a guaranteed tuition model.
McDavis is the longest currently serving president at any public university in Ohio.
Keith Wilbur, the senior student trustee on the board, did not respond to requests for comment.
But Megan Marzec, Student Senate president, disagreed with the raise.
"This is what we have been fighting for years, and this is what students elected us to fight," she said. "It is clear to anyone that taking money from indebted students to give outrageous bonuses to millionaires is unjust. It is class war, and we intend to defend ourselves by organizing the student body against this."
During the 2012-13 academic year, McDavis’ total compensation was nearly $600,000. That includes pay he receives beyond his base salary and bonuses. His total compensation for the 2013-14 academic year is not yet available.
A study from the Chronicle of Higher Education released last summer said McDavis ranks in the top-third for total compensation among university presidents nationally.
The board also discussed issuing hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to repair OU’s infrastructure.
Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration, introduced the idea of issuing $250 million in debt to address the university’s deferred maintenance backlog.
The debt wouldn’t need to be paid off for a century, and Golding proposed OU invest $7 million when the university takes out the debt.
After 100 years, even under conservative estimates, that $7 million should have earned enough interest to pay off the interest on the $250 million, he said.
“We would spend it over a broader period of time to attack the utility infrastructure plan, the roofs and building envelopes, the windows, the HVAC systems, et cetera, that we are trying to improve on the Athens campus,” Golding said.
Read Tuesday’s edition of The Post for a comprehensive recap of the meeting.
