gchildress@heraldsun.com; 419-6645
CHAPEL HILL -- The new chancellor at N.C. State will be employed under a new "retreats rights" policy adopted Friday by the UNC Board Of Governors.
Under the new policy, chancellors and system presidents leaving their post in good standing with at least five years of service will be allowed a six-month leave only to prepare for a return to a faculty position.
An additional six months may be granted to a former chancellor if deemed appropriate. Non-salary compensation such as a house and automobile will be discontinued under the policy.
Also, during the six-month leave, chancellors will receive a faculty salary commensurate with salaries of faculty members with comparable rank and experience.
Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the UNC Board Of Governors, said the new policy isn't perfect but will accomplish what the board intended.
UNC President Erskine Bowles complained last summer that the system's policy was too generous in terms of pay and length of leaves, had too little accountability and needed to better define what is expected of an administrator during the leave and after the return to the faculty.
Gage and other members of the board said they thought it unfair to pay "retreating" chancellors and senior faculty such large salaries at a time when the UNC system was forced to cut jobs to make ends meet.
In August, the board voted to reduce former N.C. State Chancellor James Oblinger's salary to the rate of a normal faculty salary.
Oblinger, who resigned in June under a cloud because of his involvement in the controversial hiring of former Gov. Mike Easley's wife, Mary Easley, to a post at N.C. State.
He initially received his full administrative salary of $420,000, but that was trimmed to $173,000, a 59 percent cut.
The board will begin working on a new policy to cover senior administrators when it meets next month.
