UA System president gets boost in pay in addition to $510,000 salary

University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt is shown in this file photo.
University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt is shown in this file photo.

FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt will earn $50,000 annually in deferred compensation after action taken Friday by system trustees.

The deferred compensation will be in addition to Bobbitt's yearly salary of $510,000.

Mark Waldrip, chairman of the University of Arkansas board of trustees, said Friday at a meeting of the board that the boost in pay amends a 2017 contract with Bobbitt, who has led the UA System since Nov. 1, 2011.

Waldrip said payments will be "made from private funds, with the primary source of this funding the Charles E. Scharlau University of Arkansas System Presidential Leadership Chair."

Scharlau, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Southwestern Energy Co., in 2015 agreed to give $5 million to create an endowment to support the president of the UA System.

The increase in total compensation is retroactive to July 1, Waldrip said. Trustees in June 2017 approved a 2 percent salary raise for Bobbitt, which increased his salary beginning July 1, 2017, to $510,000 from $500,000.

By comparison, University of Tennessee System President Joe DiPietro earns an annual base salary of $539,011.08 and, in June, trustees with that system approved bonus pay totaling more than $168,000, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. University of Missouri System President Mun Choi is paid $530,000 yearly, plus $50,000 in deferred compensation, the Associated Press reported in July.

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