Dive Brief:
- Nearly 300 former higher education employees have received unused sick and vacation time payouts upon retirement of more than $50,000 and some have gotten more than $200,000, according to a Boston Business Journal report that spurred immediate calls for change.
- The state’s commissioner of higher education presented draft reforms this week, proposing to limit the maximum amount of vacation time for non-union employees as well as the amount of unused vacation time they are able to accrue.
- The Boston Business Journal reports the commissioner also proposed eliminating a policy that allows these management-level employees to convert unused vacation days to unused sick time after reaching the cap, and requiring college presidents to report leave time to trustees regularly.
Dive Insight:
Lawmakers have been closely watching the benefits packages of public college and university leaders in recent years as tuition has climbed and average student debt has continued to rise along with it.
In Illinois, a damning report from the state legislature found college presidents to be living in “a fantasy world of lavish perks.” A massive payout for a community college president upon his resignation brought even more wrath on Illinois schools for overly generous exit packages. New laws now set presidential term limits, cap severance packages, and require more transparency from boards of trustees.
Phyllis Wise’s resignation from the University of Illinois was certainly affected by the political climate around severance packages, and the state’s 10-month-long freeze on any higher education funding was also connected to the image of financial mismanagement.