System president gets boost in pay
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.
AuditorsaysUAMS budget is on track
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences began the current fiscal year on track with its approved budget, University of Arkansas System Chief Audit Executive Jacob Flournoy told university trustees Thursday.
“It’s important to stay on a balanced budget. I believe they are,” Flournoy said.
The fiscal year began July 1, after UAMS cut some 600 jobs earlier in the year to deal with a budget shortfall.
The UA board of trustees in May approved a balanced budget for UAMS with total expenses of $1.566 billion.
UAMS operates a medical school while providing patient care at a hospital and various locations across the state.
Sheffield Nelson, a partner in a Little Rock law firm and a member of the board of trustees, praised UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson — who started on June 1 — and others for “moving UAMS in a positive direction.”
Damages trickle in over fake gear
FAYETTEVILLE — Early collections so far have not approached the $8.6 million owed by counterfeiters to the University of Arkansas System according to a civil judgment, UA System President Donald Bobbitt told trustees Friday.
“The trick is collecting $8.6 million. But the good news is we have collected so far $12,235,” Bobbitt said, to some laughter, at the trustees’ meeting.
A U.S. District Court judge in August awarded $200,000 in damages each from 43 online merchants identified in a lawsuit as selling counterfeit Razorback merchandise.
The suit identified the merchants — described as residing in China or “other foreign countries” — not by personal names but by their online presence. To try to collect, the judge ordered the release of money from vendors’ accounts with commerce companies including Amazon and PayPal.
Bobbitt said asset research continues as a means to try to collect the damages, but the case also “sends a message” that the UA System “will go after these sort of piracy sites whenever we find them.” He said additional lawsuits are anticipated.
$15 million set for cancer center
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas board of trustees on Friday approved a $15 million project to add clinical components to “shell space” on three floors of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
“This is very important to us, especially as we’re recruiting a new cancer center director,” Bill Bowes, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences senior vice chancellor for finance and administration and chief financial officer, told trustees on Thursday.
The project is to be paid with a mix of donations and UAMS operating funds.
Dr. Peter Emanuel left the cancer center director position in July.