by Rea Hodge–

According to a news release from the University of Louisville, the board of trustees voted Oct. 13 to extend U of L President James Ramsey’s contract on until June 30, 2020. Ramsey’s contract would have expired on June 30, 2012.

Although the release includes a statement from board member Robert Hughes saying terms of the agreement – including compensation – would be addressed later, Ramsey already received a five percent salary increase in July. Currently, Ramsey’s yearly salary is over $478,000.

Ramsey was widely applauded by the Louisville and national press in the last 3 years for declining yearly performance bonuses of over $100,000 for which he was eligible. In a statement released by the university in 2009, board trustee Salem George quotes Ramsey, saying that he “won’t accept a salary increase while U of L’s faculty and staff are receiving the same pay as last year.”

When the U of L board of trustees finance and personnel committees met on May 12, the finance committee approved a merit-based salary increase of three percent for faculty and staff.

This year Ramsey accepted his bonus, saying “this year, since we were able to get raises for the faculty, I decided to take the bonus, which I’ll be re-investing that into the school.”

In the same meeting, a six percent undergraduate tuition hike was approved for the 2011-2012 year, marking the eleventh consecutive year of tuition increase for U of L students.

Along with the tuition increase, the committee approved an increase in the already-controversial residential meal plan. Costs increased from $745 to $930 for those students in housing with kitchens, and $1,165 to $1,460 for those in halls without kitchens, as reported by The Louisville Cardinal in March.

Ramsey says that he and his wife will be putting part of the bonus back into a scholarship fund that they both created for low-income students of Shawnee High School.

Other investments will include contributions to the university library, the University of Louisville College of Business and into spinal cord injury research.

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Photo: Flikr/UniversityofLouisville