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USF Gives Bonuses Amid Budget Cutbacks

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Marshall Goodman (left) and Les Miller (right) both recieved hefty bonuses despite budget cuts.

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By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2009

TAMPA - After cutting millions from its budget and laying off staff, the University of South Florida gave bonuses in January ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to four high-level employees.

The highest went to Marshall Goodman, vice president and chief executive officer of USF Polytechnic. His $20,000 came on top of a $232,432 annual salary.

USF President Judy Genshaft's chief of staff, Cynthia Visot, received an $11,500 bonus on a $147,000 salary.

Les Miller, community relations director and student ombudsman, and a former state senator, received $6,500 in addition to his $90,000 salary.

And Michael Pearce, chief technology officer who makes $175,000 per year, received $5,000.

USF faculty and staff representatives reacted to the news with puzzlement and anger.

"It certainly looks out of whack, especially when everyone is expecting harder times ahead," said Sherman Dorn, the head of USF's faculty union.

He helped negotiate a contract for the faculty that included a 2 percent raise this year and a pool of merit money that gave some faculty about $200 each.

"One of the greatest concerns I have is erosion of morale," especially when many faculty and staff members are taking on more work to deal with previous cuts and a current hiring freeze, Dorn said.

"The appearance is that the administration and trustees will protect people they know at the cost to morale."

"This is just bizarre," said Laurence Branch, head of the USF faculty senate. "The pervasive sense on the campus is that these kinds of bonuses are just for the very select few, and it's not for us mere mortals to even be concerned."

Genshaft approved the bonuses, said USF spokesman Michael Hoad. Three of the recipients, Goodman, Pearce and Visot, report directly to her.

One of the bonus recipients, Miller, said he deserved the additional money as compensation for extra tasks he's been given. Miller is in charge of a program to help students in danger of dropping out because of financial problems, in addition to other student and community relations programs.

"I've had a tremendous increase in responsibility at the university," said Miller, who plans to run for a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission next year.

Since fall 2007, the state Legislature has cut about $52 million from USF's budget, about 15 percent. In response the university eliminated 450 staff and nontenured faculty jobs, from a total of about 13,250 across the university. Most of those jobs were already unfilled, but about 70 people lost their positions.

Some were shifted into other jobs and some were laid off, said Bill McClelland, president of the union that represents about 2,000 staff members, from lawn workers to managers.

"I'm very concerned to hear that these folks have gotten bonuses of such magnitude," he said. Some of the people he represents make so little, he said they could qualify for food stamps. "The university is telling us that we all have to make sacrifices and then to hear that others are benefiting is discouraging."

The people who received the bonuses may be taking on extra work, but so are others throughout the university, McClelland said. Every position that was eliminated meant extra work for someone else.

To USF spokesman Hoad, the more significant issue is that a majority of Genshaft's cabinet got no raises this year. Genshaft's pay remained the same as in 2008, at $395,000, and $225,000 of that comes from tax money. The rest comes from the private USF Foundation.

Last year, he said, "Genshaft said no salary increases for the Cabinet — she didn't promise to freeze bonuses. Her promise has remained accurate."

Writing in an e-mail he said, "our business requires us to make decisions (including pay decisions) every single day. The hiring freeze that we are in does not mean that we don't continue to do business, it just means that there is an additional process for any exceptions. It means that things are looked at carefully but not that we don't pay people money."

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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