The incentive targets outlined in LSU President William Tate’s contract are within easy reach if funding and research remain on course, based on previous years’ figures, Louisiana Illuminator reports.
Per his contract, Tate can nearly double his pay if he meets certain goals. The LSU Board of Supervisors signed off on his new contract in June, though the contract and the incentive pay were not finalized until August.
Negotiations on the new contract stretched several months before the board approved it, former LSU Board of Supervisors member Jay Blossman said in an interview with the Illuminator. Blossman, who left the board in June after not being reappointed by Gov. Jeff Landry, says Tate wanted to renegotiate the five-year contract the board approved in 2021 to get a higher salary.
Blossman opposed the deal, as he believes Tate and other LSU employees who’ve renegotiated their contracts should serve out the full term of their deals before getting raises.
An annual bonus of $100,000 rests on LSU’s Baton Rouge campuses spending $125 million on research and its system research expenditures surpassing $300 million. According to data from the National Science Foundation, the Baton Rouge schools spent $344 million on research in 2023, while the other system schools spent approximately $82 million in 2022.
Tate will be awarded $75,000 if philanthropic fundraising exceeds $50 million for the system and an additional $100,000 if giving exceeds $75 million. According to publicly available tax documents for nonprofit foundations associated with system schools, total fundraising revenues for the system was approximately $160 million in 2023. That number is down from $308 million in 2022 and $247 million in 2021.
