Numerous Letters have been sent by alumni and parents to members of the Colgate University Board of Trustees. All have been ignored.
Colgate University President
Rebecca Chopp first year salary and benefits: $347,520; former president
Charles Karelis: $1,138,134
for two years work plus severance
pay
EX-COLGATE PRESIDENT
PAID
$572,194 AFTER LEAVING
December 12, 2004
OFFICIAL: UNIVERSITY HONORING HIS SEVERANCE CONTRACT.
Post-Standard, The (Syracuse, NY)
Glenn Coin Staff writer
At his inauguration in 1999, Colgate University's new president was tapped to lead the school into the new millennium.
Charles Karelis didn't get quite that far. He resigned abruptly - by phone - in spring 2001. His was the shortest tenure of any Colgate president since at least 1897.
But Karelis still was paid more than $1.1 million for two years of work. In fact, thanks to his severance package, Karelis actually earned more money as an ex-president than he did for running the school.
Colgate paid Karelis $565,940 in salary and benefits in the two years he was president. His severance package, paid out in the two years after he left, came to $572,194. The numbers come from the most recent financial reports Colgate filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Karelis declined to discuss the severance package.
"It was negotiated by the parties involved and I don't see a reason to comment," said Karelis, now a visiting professor of philosophy at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The chairman of Colgate's board of trustees, John Golden, also declined to comment. He referred questions to Jim Leach, the university's vice president for communications.
Leach said Karelis' contract precludes the university from talking about the details of his pay or severance package.
"What I can say is that we met our contractual obligations
to him, and he to us," Leach said.
Karelis and university officials also have declined to discuss the specific
reasons Karelis left Colgate, where previous presidents had served an
average of 13 years each. "He went back to Washington to pursue his
scholarly activities," Leach said.
The situation was more complicated than that, said economics professor Michael Haines, president of the Colgate chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Karelis had never served as a college administrator before, Haines said, and was ill-suited for the job of running Colgate.
"It wasn't a good fit," Haines said. "He basically didn't seem to take to this job very well. He wasn't active in going out and meeting alums. He wasn't on campus that much. It just became increasingly clear he didn't have the kind of interest in the job he should have had."
Haines said he doesn't fault trustees for paying Karelis' severance package.
"I would rather we spent that money on the educational mission of the institution," Haines said. "But if (severance pay) is appropriate under the circumstances, I don't want to second-guess the trustees on that."
More than three years after Karelis left, his portrait is still missing from the university's Hall of Presidents in the student union. The spacious hall contains oil paintings of all 13 Colgate presidents from 1836 to 1999.
Leach said the university intends to put up Karelis' portrait when it's done. Colgate officials are reviewing the work of potential artists, Leach said, and will probably include money for the portrait in the budget year that begins in June.
Leach noted that the portrait of Karelis' predecessor, Neil Grabois, wasn't hung until two years after Grabois left.
Karelis declined to discuss his portrait, and referred all questions about it back to Leach.
"I don't want to be commenting on these matters," Karelis said.
Karelis is not the only local college president to get a severance package after leaving. Hamilton College's former president, Eugene Tobin, received a severance package of $827,000 after he resigned. Tobin, who quit after admitting he had plagiarized portions of speeches, had served 10 years as Hamilton's president and 13 years before that as a professor and dean.
Severance packages are nothing new to Colgate, either. After Grabois left in 1999, he received $552,609 in salary and benefits over the next two years, according to IRS documents filed by Colgate. Grabois was president for 11 years.
The current president, Rebecca Chopp, was paid $347,520 in salary and benefits in her first year, in 2002-2003.
Presidential pay
Charles Karelis, who served two years at the helm of Colgate University,
was paid more as ex-president than he was as president. His compensation,
by year, including salary and benefits:
1999-2000 $266,011
2000-2001 $299,929
2001-2002 $296,417*
2002-2003 $275,777*
*Severance package paid after Karelis resigned
Source: Colgate University
Copyright, 2004, The Herald Company