Special committee on executive compensation to make recommendations to full Board of Regents

What: University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting?
When: Thursday, June 7 and Friday, June 8?
Where: 600 McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. S.E., Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/01/2012) —The University of Minnesota Board of Regents Special Committee on Executive Compensation and Administrative Transitional Leaves will report its findings and recommendations to the full Board at its meeting Friday, June 8.

Regent Richard Beeson, committee chair, and committee members Regent John Frobenius and Regent Dean Johnson have met three times since April examining practices and policies related to compensation of senior leaders at the university.

On Friday they are expected to recommend:

Clarifying and strengthening in Board of Regents policy the Board’s role in setting, approving and monitoring senior leader compensation and separations. Addressing for the first time the Board’s role in approving the terms of presidential transitions.

Creating a new administrative policy on senior leader compensation and separation that: increases transparency; establishes a new, standard employment contract for senior leaders, and aligns separation provisions to those provided to regular faculty and staff and eliminates ‘administrative transitional leaves.’ The proposal is that senior leaders who are tenured faculty members and who return to the faculty after their administrative service may be granted a shorter, six-month sabbatical with pay at the lower faculty rate rather than their administrative salary.

Charging an existing Board of Regents committee with additional responsibilities related to senior leader compensation philosophy, strategy and oversight.

“With these changes, the public can be confident that this Board has robust oversight of executive compensation and that future separation agreements will be prudent,” Beeson said. “These new policies and practices will put the University of Minnesota at the forefront nationally with regard to formal policy and governance oversight of senior leadership compensation.”

Also on the Board of Regents docket is a work session in which Vice President of Human Resources Kathy Brown and Lincoln Kallsen, director of financial analysis for the Office of Budget and Finance, will outline analysis being done to better define the university-wide workforce and administrative costs. This session will be held from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. Thursday, June 7.

The goal of the workforce analysis will be to view university workforce changes historically and moving forward through a replicable method of measurement. The objectives for the study are to define the university’s workforce in terms of job duties, identify job categories needing further exploration and potential expansion and construct metrics for defining and understanding operational overhead.

Other Board of Regents agenda items include:

The Board of Regents will act on President Eric Kaler’s proposed FY 13 budget which advances the goals he outlined in his State of the University speech March 1: to keep the U affordable for students; invest in the U’s excellent faculty, research infrastructure, technology, student aid and scholarships; use state resources responsibly and hold down costs. For more details on the proposed budget, go to this .

The board will act on the FY13 Annual Capital Improvement Budget, which would authorize projects totaling $375.7 million to begin design or construction during the next fiscal year.

Senior Vice President and Provost Karen Hanson will deliver a presentation on E-learning and E-Texts to the Educational Planning & Policy Committee.

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter will review a long-range financial planning model that utilizes current levels of university revenues and expenditures to model future financial projections. It is an exercise to inform the Board and the public about the financial challenges the university faces while also providing a baseline for future planning. This presentation is before the Finance & Operations Committee.

Pfutzenreuter will present a mission cost analysis unique to the University of Minnesota. It looks at the cost of instruction, research, public service, auxiliary and student services. This presentation is also before the Finance & Operations Committee.

Establish meeting dates for 2012-13.

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Last modified on June 1, 2012