The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education has reduced vacation and retirement benefits for state university and college administrators, following revelations that some of them converted unused off days into hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
The state Senate, meanwhile, unanimously called for a commission to investigate how salaries, bonuses, benefits and the number of administrators contribute to rising tuition and fees at public universities and colleges, though the bill did not pass the House.
Both moves follow disclosures by The Eyeand others about benefit policies that allowed administrators to cash in accumulated vacation and sick time when they left their jobs.
Most public university and college employees were paid full value for any of up to 64 unused vacation days. If they banked more than 64 days, they were allowed to add those to their unused sick days, for which they received 20 percent of the cash value when they retired or resigned.
The policy first came to broad public notice when Bridgewater State President Dana Mohler-Faria retired and was paid $269,984 for carried-over sick and vacation days.
Middlesex Community College President Carole Cowan and Vice President Jay Linnehan received a combined $440,581 in accrued sick and vacation days plus severance and early retirement incentive pay, the Lowell Sun found. When he steps down this month, Holyoke Community College President William Messner will be eligible for at least $44,710 in unused vacation and sick time.
Only 12 percent of employers nationwide pay departing workers for any portion of unused sick time, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. An investigation by the Department of Higher Education found that Massachusetts was unique among the New England states in letting university and college employees convert unused vacation days into sick days.
The new policy, approved unanimously by the Board of Higher Education, affects 1,650 administrators and other non-union employees of the 16 community colleges and nine state universities.
It says that any vacation days they have accumulated over 64 will be forfeited, beginning July 1, and can no longer be converted into sick days. Starting Jan. 1, 2019, the 64-day maximum will be reduced to 50 days.
The maximum annual total number of vacation days allowed for any of these employees will be reduced effective Jan. 1, 2017 from 30 days, or six weeks, to 25 days. That’s still more than twice the median number of vacation days earned by American workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Entry-level employees will receive 20 annual vacation days, or four weeks, down from the current 22 days.
The board did not limit the number of sick days employees can accrue.
More oversight
The higher-education panel also ordered its staff to provide training for boards of trustees in how to oversee presidential leave time and other benefits; it’s these boards that negotiate contracts with the presidents. And it required for the first time that those presidents annually report to the commissioner of higher education how much sick and vacation time they’ve accumulated.
Campus boards of trustees were banned from entering into agreements with outgoing or former presidents without the commissioner’s consent. In addition to his more than quarter-million-dollar payout for unused sick and vacation time, Mohler-Faria was given a $100,000-a-year consulting contract by the Bridgewater State board of trustees. He has since agreed to forgo that money.
Disclosures about the payouts for unused vacation and sick time come as public higher-education institutions are asking for more state funding, and when the state is facing a $1 billion shortfall in tax revenue.
They have prompted the call for a commission to investigate employee perks and other costs, and support from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker for separate legislation limiting the amount of sick time other state workers can save up and cash in.
Administrators in the University of Massachusetts system, which is governed separately, were never eligible for the benefit under which vacation days could be converted into sick days.
Among other benefits, however, chancellors at the UMass campuses in Boston and Amherst and the UMass Medical School are entitled to bonuses of up to $201,000 per year, based on meeting performance goals that UMass says the public is not allowed to see.
The New England Center for Investigative Reporting is an independent, nonprofit news outlet based at Boston University and WGBH News in Boston. Boston University, a competitor of Massachusetts public colleges, does not participate in NECIR story selection or the center’s editorial process.
