UCF President Hitt’s Bonus May Triple Average Family’s Annual Income
News, Tuition, UCF Administration — By Staff on July 22, 2010 at 8:47 pmJust weeks after UCF convinced the Florida Board of Governors to raise differential tuition during a time when Florida’s unemployment is nearly the worst in the country, UCF President John Hitt is set to get a one time bonus of $143,000 — nearly three times the $47,802 it takes an average Florida household to rake in over an entire year.
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According to the Orlando Sentinel, that $143,000 figure is on top of Hitt’s 2009-2010 pay package totaling about $556,000. That includes $463,500 in base pay and about $92,000 in deferred compensation.
Hitt won’t be the only one to get a bonus. Nearly a dozen top UCF administrators are set to get bonuses, after the UCF Board of Trustees voted over a teleconference today to approve the payouts, the paper reported.
The bonuses are based on the administrators achieving certain goals. Administrators, who have been battling massive state budget cuts over the past few years, had declined these bonuses in recent years, citing the tough economy, but Trustees decided to pay the bonuses now, instead of having to pay interest on them if they waited longer, according to the Sentinel.
Click to see bonus spreadsheet
Florida law limits the state’s contribution to university president salaries to $225,000 a year, but universities are able to get around that limit by using private foundations to generate funds to pay the rest.
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23 Comments
As an employee for 9 years going on 10th anniversay, at 22K a year, I have seen for too long how UCF “operates”. Our bonus this year, BEFORE taxes was 1500$ (most of us paid bills with it.) Employees know that UCF Admin and Board of Trustees is a good ole boys network, and that UCF has a “culture of bullying” against staff. HR Admin has even proposed a potentiallly new regulation to get rid of USPS employees WITHOUT cause.
I never imagined a public American university could be so corrupt & abusive towards public employees.
‘Nuff said
It was a Brevard County superintendent. He refused his bonus and had it go to students. There’s the link, so you can eat crow:
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/education/2009/02/dipatri-wont-take-bonus-this-year-and.shtml
So since I was right and you were wrong about that happening, I hope everyone else considers the sources when you defend the Foundation.
The entity is headed by a man who also is enjoying an enormous bonus. The Foundation is corrupt. It employs a lobbyist under fire for abusing the county contract to buy MEN ONLY ridiculous dinners with tax money.
More “articles” so you believe me now:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/07/no-name-club-audit-of-orange-convention-center-caterer-a-coverup.html
The Foundation is part of this good old boy network. They all lie, cheat, and manipulate.
Why did Progress Energy give UCF a giant donation to build that welcome center at the same time they were raising rates on customers and telling state leaders they had to because of the tough times?
Could the deal UCF awarded Progress Energy after for several half-million dollar signs with expensive fiber optic cables have anything to do with it?
Who knows… but here’s how the foundation could be screwed up:
Say the company gives Hitt’s Foundation a million bucks for that sign. The company gets a huge tax write off. Hit takes it for his bonus and other stuff. Then, Hitt gives Progress energy a contract for all those worthless signs.
Progress energy saves a bundle on the taxes, Hitt gets his paycheck, and students and taxpayers fork over millions for worthless signs.
I’d get to the bottom of it… but I can’t. The Foundation is shrouded in secrecy… and so are the records.
You, sir, are naive. I hope I don’t run into you in the real world, or we don’t end up working for the same company, because people like you will get taken for a ride and walked all over.
Some people believe everything they’re told.
Dearest crazy “not true.”
You are a moron. You are also an idiot. And more then likely you are naieve and immature. Heres what I want you to do to better UCF: Leave. If UCF is a secret evil empire conspiring to take your money and hold secrets from students, then leave. being at UCF is a privilege an honor, so pack your bags and find yourself a non-”secretive” institution. This will improve everyones conditions of life by your moronic statements hopefully dissapearing from these message boards and your probably F average test scores being taken somewhere else. But before you do I want you to do two things.
1) Please please please show me how the UCF foundation is a farce. Research, find the information to back up your bogus claim. And while your researching please thank them for the millions of dollars they have raised to help this instituion and its student body.
2). Find the article about the superintendent (just keep in mind a superintendent of schools isnt even CLOSE to a state funded university administration, board of trustees, or board of governors)
When you go to sleep tonight I hope you pray for the power to lose your ingorance and the strength to stop expressing your assanine thoughts.
Hitt could donate his salary to the foundation so it could be given to student scholarships. He’d get a tax write off. A school superintendent did it before. He wants this money, make no mistake!
The foundation is a farce. It exists to give Hitt more money, not scholarships for students… and so UCF can operate in secrecy with millions of dollars No wonder SGA is corrupt.. they are following what their leaders tell them.
It should be noted that the real reason majors have been cut has been due to the lack of demand and tuition revenues to support the programs and fund the professors salaries. All revenue collected by the University are essentially earmarked for different budgeted line items. President Hitt’s compensation is specifically earmarked for that reason, not for tuition.
Increases in tuition demands have no bearing on what President Hitt is being paid, it is reflective of the needs of the university to fund its budgeted operations for the majors and programs that do have excess demand. And regardless of all the chatter, President Hitt has no say over his compensation. A Board votes to approve bonuses or increases and has every right to increase the bonus given to the University President.
It is much easier to “point fingers” to one figure of authority then actually assess the true problems this University faces – which is simply less tuition revenues to fund growing operations and infrastructure expansion.
Nope, dont work for President Hitt, nor am I employed by the university. I just care about hearing all the facts before i make comments. The drones on this thread feel differently obviously.
I literally felt like throwing up after hearing about this. I had to get a second job because of tuition. Actually, because of the fees. That is what kills me. He will make in one lump sum what it takes 3 years for the average family to make. INSANE.
He honestly should donate it right back to scholarships. If he doesn’t, you know what they say in church… It’s easier for a camel to pass through an eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!
We’ll all get our riches one day… and he’ll regret being so greedy.
I’m sure President Hitt is a great person and I don’t doubt in the least that he has done wonderfully spectacular things for UCF. In fact, he’s probably the best UCF has had. But doesn’t this whole bonus thing seems a bit badly timed? I mean, majors and teachers and classes have been slashed pretty heavily recently because they couldn’t be afforded…so where’s all this bonus money coming from? He could give a $2000 scholarship to every student here from that bonus alone and have a good bit left over. It’s his money, of course, but I do hope it goes back to UCF for funding something other than palm trees and watering sidewalks…
Oy do you work for President Hitt? It sure sounds like it. I trust the Orlando Sentinel any day over someone who wont even put there name on a comment on knightnews.com. (even me
)
Knightnews did the BOT send out a press release? when and where was the meeting held?
If you read the article, these bonuses were necessary to come out- as part of a contract. For the past few years, they have been turned down by the administration because of the same reasons everyone is complaining about- raise in tuition, sucky economy, etc. The reason they were given out now is so that our school doesn’t have to pay interest on these bonuses causing our tuition to go up even more.
The president has put our school on the map. He has made it better. I don’t know if its worth a $100,000 bonus, but still he’s done stuff.
Just because the sentinel posted it doesnt mean you need to reiterate everything they said without doing your due “diligence” as “reporters.” i would much rather have all the facts before i start making judgements, as everyone else has done. More questions that your article brings up but since everyone jumps to conclusions no one has asked.
1) Are there laws against offering administrative pay back to the university?
2) How much interest would the BOT had to have paid if they withheld the bonus again?
3) How long ago was this bonus decided upon, was it before the economic crisis or at a time where it was fiscally feasible for the university?
4) How much are similar administrators making in bonuses at other universities?
5) Why did Kilbride vote yes, if he did because it has yet to be stated in the actual article.
Its hard for me to understand why the apparent “lemmings” who follow these articles and comment care nothing about complete balanced stories and not just reposted one-sided articles that only incite anger wuthout prividing any information beyond the one headline. I urge all of you to try to contact Presudent Hitt and try to ask him these questions, instead of lambasting him via KnightNews, because I primise you he doesnt read this shotty blog. If you have true issues with it then stand up and make something happen. Complaining changes nothing so become informed and stand for what you believe is right.
As a sign of protest, if I ever see Hitt on campus, I will run up to him, with whatever cash I have on hand, and offer it to him and say, “Here, apparently you need this more than I do. Oh, and if you need to, you can cancel my major. I only have a few classes left, I don’t mind. I’m sure you can use the savings to give yourself another bonus.”
I think UCF was hiding this. They did it on a teleconference and didn’t send a press release about it. They didn’t want media there like when they raise our tuition. Kilbride should have asked our opinion about this. I would have voted a BIG FAT NO! Can someone post how he and the others on the BOT voted?
Also, those goals you mentioned about Hitt are part of his JOB DESCRIPTION. If the guy at McDonald’s brings my burger on time the way I order it, he gets his crap wage and no bonus. Hitt needs no bonus for doing what his job requires. He already makes a half million bucks as it is…. more than President Obama.
Keep drinking the kool aide guys…
This hurts… I work 2 jobs to pay for tuition and all thats done is 30k towards Hitts palm trees, 450k to a sign on alafaya, and now 143k in bonuses to Hitt.
Even if Hitt and the other people receiving these large bonuses made great accomplishments this year, it still isn’t right that they are raising the cost for students to attend UCF and cutting majors and staff salaries while at the same time taking a $143,000 bonus. That money should be used in a better way, like going towards not raising our differential tuitions…
Goals Hitt achieved:
- Making UCF one of the top schools in Florida (possibly even THE top) in a short amount of time
- Expanding UCF’s campus and opening the UCF Medical School
- Making UCF a flagship “green” school (see: DOE visiting UCF)
- Managing to keep programs for being cut longer than schools like UF
- Helping our sports programs grow into the national spotlight
I don’t know about you, but UCF is much better now than it was in 1992. I’m really proud of UCF and the direction it’s going. Hitt is a great president, who may have his faults like anyone else, but as Oy said, he kinda does deserve it. Note that the superintendent of Palm Beach County schools makes like $350,000, so yeah, it’s pretty easy to make numbers that high. Considering Hitt helped bring in millions (billions?) of dollars to UCF, wouldn’t you then say it fair to get compensation? Of course, I also think every professor should get a bonus as well…
SGA… thanks for playing on golf carts drunk and not standing up to Hitt when he wastes my money.
We posted the information we read in the Sentinel and attributed to them. Unless we missed it, UCF didn’t send us a press release letting us know the reasons Hitt would take the bonus, or exactly what goals he achieved. Once they are open for business tomorrow, we’ll try and get the other side. As for now, all we know is what’s in the Sentinel, and that article didn’t spell out details about the goals, other to say some were related to increasing UCF enrollment. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/os-ucf-president-bonus-20100722,0,3549410.story
Dear Commenters,
You are dumb. You are commenting on an article that states large numbers but provides no information as to what these administrators accomplished to receive the benefits. Ask questions before you lash out, maybe youd be surprised at some of the things our school has done that maybe you dont know about. I am not saying that those arent high numbers, if the data showed they did little to deserve them then i would be angry too, but please dont buy into the sensationalized one sided story telling that you are commenting on. Prove that you are smart individuals and want to know all the facts and not just the ones KnightNews decides you should know. Maybe KnightNews will be a legitimate news source and provide both sides of each story. Oh who am i kidding.
Let me guess… the BOT voted unanimously to give Hitt this obscene amount of money… meaning Kilbride caved and voted for this crap too!
How is this right? Majors are being cut, teacher salaries are declining, we’re having to cut the number of classes offered because we can’t afford them… and the highest paid people at the university are getting paid MORE? If they truly care about this university, they should turn around and put that money where it counts.
So how does it make sense that “nearly a dozen” administrators are getting these stupid huge bonuses. hitt’s bonus alone could hire 2-3 professors for a year instead of turning ucf into an online “University of Phoenix”.
i’m speechless