By Josh T. Ballard
University of Louisville President James Ramsey has been busy since the close of the spring 2010 semester. In June he received a stellar review from the Board of Trustees and was offered a pay raise. In July he was named the 2010 Louisvillian of the Year by the Advertising Federation of Louisville.
According to a report in UofL Today, Ramsey refused the lump sum payment of more than $100,000. As the University of Louisville faces its 10th state budget cut in 10 years, and with faculty having to forego their annual raises for three consecutive years, Ramsey believes that he should not receive any preferential treatment.
“The bonus has always been designed as part of my compensation package,” said Ramsey in an e-mail correspondence with The Louisville Cardinal. “While I am well compensated at the University of Louisville, we do all operate in markets. And market compensation for the position [at] the University of Louisville is falling behind its peer institutions.”
Ramsey said that he will not accept any subsequent bonus offerings until faculty conditions change.
“I am a faculty, and I consider myself a faculty, and don’t feel it would be right for me to take a bonus or any increase at a time when our faculty are not receiving such increases.”
In July, when Ramsey was named Louisvillian of the Year, he jokingly underplayed his role at the university by calling himself “corporate overhead” and he made a reference to a deeper desire to one day re-enter academics.
“I originally thought my tenure as president would be three to five years,” said Ramsey. “I have now agreed to stay…until 2013. My reference was clearly to returning to the faculty and having the opportunity to teach and do other fun things and return to my academic roots.”
At a Louisville Forum assembly on Aug. 11, Ramsey began his opening remarks by stating that he felt “like a lost ball in high weeds,” only feeling at home in front of a group of students and a whiteboard with “about an hour and 15 minutes to talk about economics.”
Melissa Laning, faculty senate chair at U of L, believes Ramsey has admirable reasons for refusing the bonus.
“It does go beyond just the negative publicity that he might have received had he accepted the bonus,” said Laning. “It has much more to do with the integrity and appreciation for all the work that everybody else does to make the university what it is.”
Tiffany Brock, a recent graduate of U of L, agreed with Laning.
“We live in a society that has become very greedy, so for President Ramsey to turn down a bonus…it shows a lot about his character,” said Brock. “I don’t know many people who would decline if they were in his shoes.”
According to a biography of Ramsey published by the Office of the President, there have been many positive changes since he took office in 2002: ACT scores of incoming students have been on the rise, graduation rates have increased, federal research money has quadrupled, on-campus residency has grown 14 percent, and record-breaking university fundraising has yielded more than $100 million each year.
“He deserved [a bonus],” said Laning. “When you look at the private sector you see a lot of CEOs accepting bonuses when other people are being laid off or their investors are suffering…but President Ramsey is clearly a very different kind of leader.”
