University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler will recommend a $50,000 raise for UMD Chancellor Lendley Black next month.
The increase is expected to go before the University of Minnesota Board of Regents during a May meeting, via a contract amendment, and would bring Black's total pay to $412,989.
Why now, as UMD works to address a $5.4 million budget shortfall and deals with the loss of a lawsuit that has it paying off nearly $4 million to a former hockey coach?
"The University of Minnesota strives to have senior leader compensation packages at the median of peer groups," said Evan Lapiska, director of public relations for the U of M System.
The System is "particularly attentive to senior leaders who have been established in positions for a significant period of time."
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Black replaced the retiring Kathryn A. Martin in 2010, and started with a salary of $244,250. That salary reflected a temporary decrease imposed on administrators during his first year.
Black's current salary, which includes retirement contributions, is $362,989. The proposed raise is an increase of about 14 percent.
The pay raise would be funded by the University of Minnesota System, and not UMD's budget. (That also goes for the amount awarded by a federal judge last month to former UMD women's hockey coach Shannon Miller in her discrimination case, pending any appeals.)
Black’s raise is based in part on comparison to what leaders earn at UMD’s “peer” institutions, or those with similar profiles. According to Board of Regents documents, that list includes Minnesota State University-Mankato, South Dakota State University and the University of Northern Iowa.
U of M executive vice president and provost Karen Hanson is up for a similar increase for the same reason.
Black's last raise was in 2016 - an increase of $19,500, or 7 percent.
The proposal going before the board had previously been listed on both the February and March agendas, and was pulled because it hadn't been routed through the proper committee.
UMD has been in cost-cutting mode for several years, thanks to past enrollment decline and decreases in state funding. The university's current deficit is expected to be whittled down in chunks over the next five years, with $600,000 in cuts planned for the coming fiscal year.
