Howard University spent $1.1 million to give several top administrators six-figure bonuses at a time when school officials were preparing to raise tuition for students and to furlough faculty as they wrestled to close a budget shortfall.
Faculty members are now protesting the bonuses, which they called “an affront to the integrity of the University and a slap in the face to the entire faculty.”
The bonuses, awarded in 2010, came to light at a time when Howard is looking to reduce faculty costs and just after school officials imposed a 12 percent tuition hike on students for the 2012-13 school year.
Hassan Minor, Howard’s senior vice president for strategic planning and external affairs, received the largest of the bonuses, $522,184 or more than double his base salary, according to a financial breakdown posted on the university’s website.
Senior Vice President Artis Hampshire-Cowan, who was appointed last spring to the Metro board of directors, got a $302,820 bonus.
The school’s chief legal officer, Norma Leftwich, got a $224,000 bonus. Wayne Frederick, head of Howard’s cancer center, got $97,000.
None of those who got a bonus responded to requests for a comment.
Faculty members at the predominantly black university issued a sharply worded letter to the school’s board of trustees on demanding an explanation.
“We find this to be morally repugnant for the university to award very large sums of additional university monies when our endowment, our federal subsidy and the university’s operating budget have decreased significantly,” faculty members wrote.
The university is defending the bonuses, saying they were part of deals negotiated in 2007 that were needed to help the school retain its top executives.
“Our commitment to Howard’s growth, sustainability and enhanced position in the higher education community was the driving force behind our 2007 decision to ensure the continuity of senior leadership in critical areas and mitigate any potential risks for the university,” school administrators said in a statement to The Washington Examiner.
Faculty Senate Chairman Eric Walters said Howard hasn’t been as hard hit by the recession as other schools. Faculty did receive 3 percent across-the-board pay raises over the last several years, he said. But the faculty are concerned about the university doling out bonuses at a time of shrinking budgets and are asking university administrators to provide written justification for the bonuses.
“One of the things we asked for was context — it was shocking and outrageous to us,” said Walters, who’s also an associate professor of biochemistry. “We trust that the administration will provide a response.”
