CHICAGO — President Robert Easter will oversee the three campuses a little longer.
The Board of Trustees on Thursday approved a one-year extension and a performance-based bonus for Easter, whose contract now runs through mid-2015.
The board’s Executive Committee will be responsible for evaluating Easter’s progress of established goals and awarding additional compensation this September. His base salary is $450,000 per year, which is expected to increase in September when employees are set to receive salary bumps. The salary program will increase employees’ pay by an average of 2.75 percent, with a minimum of 0.5 percent.
Easter’s bonus will be considered during the trustees’ meeting in September, when the board is expected to approve the budget for fiscal year 2014.
According to the board’s proposal, it was in the University’s “best interest” to extend Easter’s contract.
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“A lot of people think of him as providing stable leadership. I would describe him as being a dynamic leader, even as he has provided stability on a personal level,” Board of Trustees chairman Christopher Kennedy said after the meeting.
Easter, 65, agreed to take the position last year after his predecessor, Michael Hogan, resigned. Easter had agreed to serve until mid-2014, “or until a successor has been appointed and is able to assume the responsibilities of the position.”
The trustees opted out of a national search for a president this year, as Kennedy said that it would be conducted a year in advance of Easter’s eventual retirement.
“We’re out as a Board of Trustees speaking with important constituents … through those conversations and more broadly in the entire Illinois community, it became clear there was enormous support to extend President Easter’s leadership,” Kennedy said.
The trustees also took action on a number of dean positions at the Urbana campus. They appointed Andreas Cangellaris and Jan Slater for the permanent positions in Engineering and Media, respectively. John Wilkin was approved as the University librarian. The board also signed off on a one-year extension for Robert Hauser in ACES and appointed Brian Ross as the interim LAS dean.
The board also signed off on funding for a multi-million dollar renovation to the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. The University can issue up to $77 million to help fund the development that includes upgrading the hospitals heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing and elevator systems, along with building a two-story addition to the center.
The University says the project should be completed in 2017 and should not affect patient care.
Darshan can be reached at [email protected] and @drshnpatel.
