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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 14, 2005 Zinser to receive longevity bonus By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune ASHLAND — When Southern Oregon University President Elisabeth Zinser retires in August, she’ll collect a $61,000 incentive for staying five years, school records show. Zinser, 65, who announced her retirement last month, will receive the payment as part of a 2001 contract proferred by the SOU Foundation to induce its newly hired president to remain "on a long-term basis." State university officials say such deferred packages are common. The $61,051 annuity, which matures on Aug. 1, 2006, is the principal and interest from annual Foundation payments of $10,000 into the annuity. It will be in addition to Zinser’s annual salary of $135,516. A Foundation official said Tuesday that the five-year payment was crafted, in part, to augment SOU’s "pitiful" compensation package and to ensure that the institution could attract — and keep — the best chief executive. Foundation payments come from privately raised funds, not from tax sources. Advertisement "They were very concerned that the compensation offered at SOU was so far below the national average that their best candidate wouldn’t come," said Jeff Cutler, SOU Foundation treasurer. Zinser, who took a nearly $50,000 annual pay cut when she came to SOU from the University of Kentucky-Lexington, said Tuesday that the five-year payment played only a "minor" role in determining her retirement date. "When I came here, my forecast would have been five, six, possibly 10 years," said Zinser, whose tenures at previous posts lasted about six years. However, after battling breast cancer and budget turmoil and approaching age 65, Zinser said she reevaluated her timeline. "It takes a little wind out of your sails," she said, adding later: "I don’t feel comfortable doing this for 10 years now. If I’m going to retire in the next couple of years, it becomes either this year or next year." Her actual retirement date of Aug. 31 was far more influenced by SOU’s coming accreditation in 2007 and by her desire to have a new president solidly in place well before that scrutiny begins, she said. Zinser originally planned to retire about Aug. 1, but agreed to stay another month at the request of OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner. "I would not have forgone the compensation arrangement. Who would?" said Zinser, who received a similar deferred compensation package in Kentucky. "That was not something I’d leave on the table." Even with the annuity, Zinser’s pay will be well below the $360,000 median annual salary for public university presidents, a study by The Chronicle of Higher Education showed. It’s a sensitive subject, however, at an institution where annual starting pay, not including benefits, is $37,548 for assistant professors without the highest degree in their field. SOU assistant professor pay ranks 393 out of the 405 institutions that offer master’s degrees nationwide, another Chronicle of Higher Education study showed. Zinser said she has lobbied steadfastly for raises in faculty salaries and that she regrets not being able to do more to increase compensation. "I’m more concerned about faculty and staff salaries than I am about my own," she said. The contract between Zinser and the Foundation provided benefits for her and her family if she remained employed until a "minimum resignation date" of Aug. 1, 2006. It also offered graduated benefits in the event of her death or disability. If Zinser had resigned or been fired for cause, she would have received no benefit, according to the contract. If she had been let go without cause, the benefit would stand. Pernsteiner noted that such an arrangement between university presidents and the schools’ private foundations is "not unusual" in Oregon and across the county. State records show that such compensation is common among OUS schools, where foundation benefits range from a car allowance for the president of Eastern Oregon University to nearly $112,000 in pay and benefits, plus the promise of $50,000 in deferred compensation for the president of the University of Oregon. Cutler said Foundation members were worried that the combination of low pay and high cost of living in Ashland might deter candidates for the president’s post. He did not yet know whether the Foundation intends to offer a similar annuity contract to the next SOU president. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail Zinser to receive longevity bonus ">[email protected] . 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