UConn President foregoes raise, bonus

University of Connecticut President Michael Hogan, after receiving a positive review by the Board of Trustees, has declined a contractual salary raise and a performance bonus because he does not feel “right” taking extra pay when the university is in financial straits.

“I didn’t think it was the right thing to do,” said Hogan, whose contract guarantees an annual 5-percent raise in his base salary.

At $577,500 a year, the raise would be between $25,000 and $30,000 awarded at the end of each fiscal year.

The performance bonus could have been between $75,000 and $100,000.  I had a good year,” Hogan said. “A great review.”

outgoing Board of Trustees Chair John W. Rowe said, “Our unanimous view is that he’s done an outstanding job.” He also said Hogan told him before the meeting that he would not accept a bonus if offered.

Although he turned down his raise and performance bonus, Hogan will still receive a retention bonus of $37,500 this year.

According to a university spokesman, Hogan is the only UConn official who receives this type of bonus.

Contractually, he receives this bonus each year for his first five years.

However, this is the second year in a row that Hogan has opted to forego the raise and performance bonus.

In addition to considering the shaky financial state of the university, Hogan said he wanted to show solidarity with other university staff who also turned down raises this year of approximately 4.8 percent, in exchange for job security.

Trustees also continued to grapple with the state’s lack of a fiscal year 2010 budget, which has delayed finalization of the university’s fiscal year 2010 budget.

As a result, trustees unanimously voted at their June 23 meeting in favor of a temporary fiscal year 2010 budget based on the 2008-09 spending plan amounting to $932.3 million.

A temporary $755.9 million budget for the University of Connecticut Health Center was also approved during Tuesday’s board meeting.