ASU to offer Ross lower salary than previous president

Quinton Ross will be offered $287,000 a year as contract negotiations begin between Alabama State University and Ross, the president-elect. 

The ASU board of trustees' executive committee, and three board members who are not on the committee, discussed Ross' potential salary and other contract details at a board meeting Monday morning.

If accepted, the $287,000 could increase by up to $28,700 if different performance goals — fundraising, enrollment and graduation rate — are met. The compensation package does not include a car allowance, but the university would offer Ross use of a car and driver.

Gwendolyn Boyd, ASU's previous president, earned $300,000 annually.

"I think the value of the job, we set the standard at $300,000 over the past three years," said trustee Brenda Hunter, one of the board members not on the executive committee. "To offer this president any less would not even be right in terms of how you set jobs."

The board had hinted at offering Ross a salary lower than Boyd's when they selected him as the next president, citing his lack of prior university president experience. Board vice chairwoman Angela McKenzie said she couldn't approve a higher salary while she "struggle(s) with the fact our employees haven't had raises." 

Board chairwoman Alfreda Green also dismissed the notion of a previous president's salary setting a precedent. 

"I've heard about what the last president got, but that was then and this is now," Green said.

More:‘Blessed’ Quinton Ross ready for ASU challenge

Previously:Quinton Ross named ASU president

The board's removal of the car allowance was an attempt to avoid past controversy. Like Ross, Boyd was offered a car and driver by the university, and during four months in 2014, a records request by theMontgomery Advertiser showed the university incurred $12,000 in overtime charges for campus police officers serving as chauffeurs. Boyd was accused of "double-dipping" because she also received the $1,000 monthly car allowance while utilizing the chauffeur service.

Ross is technically not being offered a car allowance, but the board's offered salary was reached by adding the $12,000 annual car allowance ($1,000 per month) to the $275,000 base salary the executive committee originally aimed to offer.

Besides the compensation package, much of the board's talk centered on Ross' use of ASU's presidential home. Whereas Boyd's contract "required" her to live at the residence, the board changed the language to allow Ross the option of whether or not to live on campus. 

Trustees Pamela Ware and Joe Whitt, both committee members, were against the idea of giving Ross, a Montgomery resident, the choice.

"I think he needs to be right here on campus," Ware said.

Whitt and Ware also opposed giving Ross a moving expense if he did decide to live in the president's house. 

"So if he doesn't want to live there this year and in his second year, he decides he wants to move in, we're just going to let him and give him $10,000?" Ware asked.

Green advised that the $10,000 moving expense is the maximum that can be offered and the cost of Ross moving within city limits would most likely be considerably less.

This is not the first time discussions of ASU's presidential home have been a center of contract talks. The university made national headlines in 2014 after hiring Boyd and stipulating that, "For so long as Dr. Boyd is president and a single person, she shall not be allowed to cohabitate in the president's residence with any person with whom she has a romantic relation."

The board should not have to include similar language in Ross' contract as he is married with two children.

Green said that, pending a contract agreement being reached by the end of September, Ross is expected to start Oct. 15. 

Ross said he's currently in "volunteer mode" after attending the White House HBCU summit and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Inc.’s annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C., last week. Ross, a three-time ASU graduate and former Student Government Association president at ASU, said he is currently working to find ways to increase funding for Alabama's oldest HBCU.

Ross, a state senator, is expected to resign from his legislative seat if he agrees to terms with his alma mater, due to state law against serving two state positions simultaneously.

Trustees Green, McKenzie, Whitt, Ware and Gilpin comprise the executive committee in charge of the contract negotiations. Hunter was in attendance and trustees Darrell Hudson and Tiffany McCord phoned in to the meeting.