Hemenway fully retired from KU, no longer on payroll

Two years after the Kansas Board of Regents reached an agreement with three outgoing university chief executives, retired Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway has fully retired from the university and is no longer on the payroll, university officials confirmed.

Two other retired university leaders, however, are still drawing salaries from their institutions, as laid out in a 2009 regents memo.

After all three retired in 2009, they each took a one-year sabbatical for the 2009-10 school year. Hemenway returned for the 2010-11 school year to teach and to write a book, under stipulations in the memo.

Hemenway returned as a full professor of English and taught one class in the fall 2010 and spring 2011 semesters, American Studies 344, Topic: Sport and Higher Education. He was paid for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years at $340,352, the same salary he received in the last year he was chancellor. Of that salary, $120,000 came from public funds, and the remainder was paid by the KU Endowment Association.

Hemenway is now fully retired and doesn’t receive a salary, said Jack Martin, a KU spokesman. He also no longer receives the four tickets to KU athletics events he received during the last two school years, nor is he assigned a graduate research assistant to assist with his book project.

Hemenway will still have access to a campus office, which is in the Hall Center for the Humanities building, Martin said. Del Shankel, KU’s 15th chancellor, also has use of an office on campus.

Retired Pittsburg State University President Tom Bryant is working half-time as a professor in the College of Education and making $43,425, an administrative assistant to the president at the university said. Retired Kansas State President Jon Wefald is making $157,982 per year as a half-time professor in the university’s School of Leadership Studies, a Kansas State spokeswoman said.

Both entered a phased retirement program after their one-year sabbaticals that can last for up to five years, by mutual agreement with their universities.

Bryant and Wefald are also no longer receiving athletics tickets, as outlined in the regents’ memo.