Metropolitan State College’s incoming president will make $270,000 a year, nearly $106,000 more than his predecessor, under a contract the school’s board approved Wednesday.
Stephen Jordan also will receive an additional $59,000 annually for housing and transportation – nearly twice what other Metro presidents received – and the school’s foundation will provide a $200,000 forgivable loan.
The loan, which comes from unnamed private donors, will compensate Jordan for the $240,000 he will lose in deferred compensation by leaving Eastern Washington University.
The loan will be forgiven if Jordan stays for three years.
“We just want to get all this on the table,” said Bruce Benson, board chairman.
Will Safford, attorney general of the Student Government Assembly, who opposed Jordan’s hiring, said the deal raises questions about whether the new president will be beholden to unknown contributors.
“Are they buying a college president?” he asked. “That idea is unsettling.”
Jordan, who makes $176,000 in base salary in Washington but received $185,000 a year in deferred compensation, dismissed that he will be bought by the foundation loan.
“That was an agreement made by the board of trustees, and I know who I report to,” Jordan said, adding he doesn’t know the names of the donors.
Jordan comes to Metro State two years after the resignation of Sheila Kaplan, who made $163,777 a year but did not have the forgivable loan. She was given $213,777 for salary and consulting fees the year she resigned and still teaches in the school’s history department.
While not part of compensation in every case, loans and deferred compensation from foundations have become somewhat common on university campuses, especially for coaches.
The University of Colorado Foundation gave basketball coach Ricardo Patton a $500,000 loan in 1997 and forgave the amount after Patton remained at his post through October 2001. Former football coach Rick Neuheisel was offered a similar loan that same year for $800,000, but he left before the contract date and had to pay the loan himself.
In contrast, former CU chancellor Richard Byyny received loans totaling $875,000 at better-than-market rates but had to repay them.
Former CU president John Buechner, who headed the search to find Jordan, will serve as interim president for a month before Jordan takes the job June 13.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
