Trustees
Offer Dye 17 Years, Possible $1 Million
By John Byrne
College President
Nancy S. Dye has been granted a contract extension through 2011
and may receive up to $1 million in deferred compensation, in a
deal approved by the Board of Trustees this spring.
If Dye stays nine more years, she will have served the fourth longest
of any other presidents in Oberlin’s history. Dye has been
president since 1994-5, and will have served 17 years by 2011.
Henry C. King, who presided from 1902-27, has served the longest.
James H. Fairchild and Charles G. Finney, who ran the College in
the latter half of the 19th century, will have also served longer
than Dye.
Dye declined to comment on how long she intends to stay. She said
only, “I can tell you, I love my job.”
A senior administrator said that Dye was strongly encouraged by
Brown University to apply for its presidency, which was just recently
filled by Ruth Simmons, who had been in the running for Oberlin’s
presidency in 1994. Oberlin turned Simmons away, and today, she
is president at Brown. Dye declined to apply.
“The Board has been studying deferred compensation for something
like two years,” former Chairman of the Board and current
Board Member William Perlik said. “We were satisfied that
it was in the long term interests of the College.”
“She deserved it,” he added.
The timing of the announcement, when the College has declared that
major new budget cuts are in the works, has taken many by surprise.
The ubiqitous question on campus is: why now?
The deal, made during closed sessions of the Board, was never announced
by the College.
Leaked to the Review just before Oberlin’s commencement ceremonies,
the call came too late, and without verification, to make the commencement
issue. It was first reported by the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram in
August. The Board believes someone tattled to the Chronicle.
Perlik stated that the College had no plans to announce the bonus,
which the Board viewed as confidential. If not leaked, it would
have likely been discovered May 15, 2004, when the College typically
files its Form 990, a federally mandated public information document
for non-profit institutions.
“There was a leak,” Perlik said. The timing of any discovery,
he added, would have depended “on the filing of the Form 990.”
But when the media called to confirm the information, the Board
opted to disclose the new contract, rather than let the rumor mill
run.
The average tenure of liberal arts college presidents runs under
ten years.
The College’s last president, S. Frederick Starr, is frequently
accused of maligning Oberlin’s institutional reputation. Dye,
meanwhile, is credited with admissions improvements, new buildings,
stronger endowment performance and a solid capital campaign during
a tough economy.
Perlik spoke with representatives of student media Tuesday, having
flown in from Washington, D.C., at the behest of current Chairman
of the Board Thomas Klutznick. Perlik was Chairman of the Board
when Dye was hired. Apparently speaking for the Board, Perlik said
that the Board has been “extremely impressed” with Dye’s
“enormously successful” tenure.
“I want to emphasize the long term benefit that would accrue
here,” he said.
“When Nancy arrived we had what could be best described as
an aborted strategic plan,” he continued.
Dye created a new master plan in the late ’90s.
“It was a brand new approach,” Perlik said. “Nancy
began to restore a sense of confidence and trust in the community
... that had been severely weakened in previous years.”
President Dye is eligible to receive $600,000 in addition to her
regular salary if she stays for six years and decides to leave after
the 2006-07 academic year. She will then be able to leave in 2009
or 2011, with an additional $100,000 for each year of service. All
told, Dye can collect a $1 million bonus in June of 2011.
The deferred compensation plan, however, grants Dye only narrow
windows of time where she can opt out.
On June 30, 2007, she can quit her post and receive $600,000. On
June 30, 2009, she can retire and receive $800,000. Or, she can
wait until June 30, 2011, and take the entire $1,000,000.
But if she leaves on any other dates, she’s out of luck.
“If she misses one of these trigger dates and leaves, she
misses the whole damn thing,” Perlik said.
After that, the Board will entertain a conversation about her continued
tenure.
“I would assume that based on her performance to date we would
very much want to have her continue,” Perlik said.
By Perlik’s account, the Board has been thrilled with Dye’s
presidency, and was eager to sign her to a long-term contract extension.
Speaking of Dye’s performance, Perlik said, “You’ve
really hit the sweet button for me.”
He posited a comprehensive list of Dye’s achievements in the
areas of strategic planning, admissions, construction, endowment
management and the capital campaign.
The campaign, which seeks to raise $165 for Oberlin’s strategic
goals in areas from faculty salaries to paying off the new science
building, remains ahead of schedule for its conclusion in 2004.
Before Sept. 11, there had been talk of raising the goal, which
has since vanished.
It’s “breathing down on a successful conclusion,”
Perlik said.
Oberlin’s endowment performance under former President Starr
pales by comparison to Dye’s tenure. While some say that was
simply the result of a booming economy, others note how little the
endowment has lost in the last year relative to peer schools.
“Our relative performance has gone from night to day,”
Perlik said. “She has enormous support among the alumnae body.”
According to Vice President for College Relations Alan Moran, President
Dye is currently making $323,000, including benefits. Dye’s
salary has risen by more $100,000 since 1998. Dye has consistently
received raises greater than those of faculty, staff and other administrators,
at roughly 7 percent.
Perlik says this is because Dye serves at the pleasure of the Board,
which cares less about cost of living increases and more about their
assessment of her performance.
“Cost of living really has not been a factor in these annual
salary reviews,” Perlik said.
Beyond her salary, benefits and possible deferred compensation,
Dye is also granted a residence at 154 Forest Street. But while
free, Dye is required to live in that particular house by the Board,
and it is the tacitly understood hotspot for often more than weekly
dinners for events, speakers and donors.
Dye made no mention of the bonus during the College’s first
General Faculty meeting Tuesday, where she began the year’s
conversation about a possible second round of budget cuts.
“Oberlin is famous in the world of higher education for doing
more with less,” she said.
Perlik also noted that while Dye is more or less contracted for
a number of years, she continues to serve at the pleasure of the
Board, and could still be removed under extreme circumstances of
“malperformance” or “dereliction of duty.”
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