Florida Atlantic University pays out voluntarily on a severance agreement that only applied to involuntary terminations.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Scott Travis) reports on a big send off for the chief fundraiser at Florida Atlantic University (Foundation EIN 59-0917284 Form 990). University President Frank Brogan agreed to pay foundation director Lawrence Davenport $578,000 after Mr. Davenport resigned to pursue his interest in getting a university president job. He had been on the job only a year.
FAU was about to launch a capital campaign and Mr. Davenport did not want to leave in the middle of the campaign. His severance agreement provides for two years salary to be paid in the event he was fired, but did not apply in the case of resignation. In a follow up story, Mr. Brogan said that more details might be forthcoming when the university's lawyer returned from vacation. He noted that the severance was paid out of the earned income proceeds and did not use contribution money.
The first article quotes Claire Van Ummersen of the American Council of Education (EIN 53-0196573 Form 990) saying that the agreement of two years salary as severance is a little long, but that eighteen months is common. But in the follow up article Ms. Van Ummersen describes the arrangement as very uncommon.
The follow up story also quotes Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (EIN 77-0313194 Form 990), saying that this is not common, but that universities do occasionally keep administrators on the payroll for long periods without giving them work to do.
Other schools in Florida do not have severance agreements for chief fundraising officers, according to the follow-up article. They are treated like regular at-will employees.
Another curious aside to this is that Mr. Davenport was involved a few years ago with Hale House (EIN 13-2700687 Form 990) in Harlem, brought in to repair financial systems after a 2002 scandal involving embezzlement by the founder's daughter. The Palm Beach Post (Kimberly Miller) reports that Mr. Davenport initially held the position of chief operating officer after coming to FSU and just moved over into the development position when his predecessor resigned to take a position at another university.
In this time of runaway salary agreements, it would be a good idea for state university systems to come up with more detailed guidelines on appropriate compensation for university presidents and key employees. As the largest fundraising group in the US (with $10 billion in contributions, two and a half times the size of United Way), state universities have a responsibility to restore some consistency and common sense in the area of employment agreements at organizations that rely on contributions.
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