photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod speaks at a Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2022 at the Vietnam Memorial on the KU campus.

Nearly half of the new $1 million salary for University of Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod will be paid with private funds, the Kansas Board of Regents told the Journal-World on Tuesday.

All of the private funding will come from the KU Endowment Association, and will total $490,000 for the 2026 fiscal year, which began on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Regents said.

As reported, the Board of Regents on Friday approved raises for Girod and the other chief executive officers of the state’s public universities, with the increases ranging from 4% to 12%. Girod received the largest pay raise both in terms of percentage and dollars, with his direct compensation increasing 12% to $1 million per year. That amounted to a raise of $105,000 compared to Girod’s salary during the just-completed school year.

On Friday, officials with the Regents told the Journal-World that a portion of Girod’s salary was being funded with private dollars, but the Regents didn’t provide details on the breakdown of state funds versus private funds. On Tuesday, the Journal-World renewed its request for the information, and a spokesman with the Regents confirmed that 49% of Girod’s total compensation was being funded by the KU Endowment Association.

That 49% total is the maximum amount the Regents allow for private funding of a university CEO position. In an effort to ensure that the chancellor and university presidents have strong accountability to the Regents — the state-appointed board that oversees the public higher education system in Kansas — the CEOs must have at least 51% of their salaries funded by state dollars.

However, the Regents have been supportive of endowment associations providing private dollars in order to help retain university CEOs or to attract top candidates when the positions become open.

“This provision has long supported the board’s ability to attract and retain top leadership talent while maintaining public accountability,” Becky Pottebaum, the Regents’ director for finance and operations, told the board during a briefing at Friday’s meeting. “We are sincerely grateful to the foundations for their continued partnership in this effort.”

The KU Endowment Association — which helps fund professors and other positions across the campus — has provided private dollars for Girod’s salary since his hiring in 2017. But the percentage of private funds has grown over the years. Exactly when it increased, though, is difficult to determine.

In recent years, the Regents haven’t publicly announced the full compensation amounts for the university CEOs. Rather, the most commonly announced number has been the CEO’s base salary, which doesn’t include retention bonuses and other monetary compensation.

On Friday — after the Regents approved a new compensation policy that highlights the need for transparency — the board released figures that show total monetary compensation for the CEOs, including both public and private funds. (The total compensation figure doesn’t include the value of in-kind compensation, such as use of university housing, vehicles or other benefits.)

Efforts to check past employment contracts also aren’t helpful in determining the trend of public versus private funds because the university CEOs do not receive employment contracts from the Regents. Rather, each serves at the pleasure of the board.

But the Journal-World did receive a copy of Girod’s 2017 appointment letter that officially spelled out the terms of his hiring. Under those terms, Girod’s first year salary and bonuses — $581,250 in 2017 — were funded with about 35% private funds from the endowment association.

On Friday, Regents indicated that many university foundations were funding a portion — but not necessarily the maximum 49% — of their university presidents’ compensation packages. While the board did not provide a breakdown of how much private versus public money is going to each position, it did provide a tally of compensation broken down by base salary versus other monetary compensation. The other compensation often is in the form of retention bonuses, which are most usually funded with private dollars from endowment funds. But, as the KU example shows, foundations also can choose to privately fund a portion of a president’s base salary too. Here’s a look at those breakdowns for the following positions:

• KU Chancellor Douglas Girod: Base salary: $800,000, up from $695,000 a year ago; Other compensation, $200,000, unchanged from a year ago. Total: $1,000,000

• Kansas State President Richard Linton: Base salary: $625,000, up from $588,000; Other compensation, $125,000, unchanged from a year ago. Total: $750,000

• Wichita State President Richard Muma: Base salary: $545,000, up from $520,000; Other compensation, $90,000, unchanged from a year ago. Total: $635,000

• Emporia State President Ken Hush: Base salary: $315,000, up from $301,000; Other compensation, $55,000, unchanged from a year ago. Total: $370,000

• Fort Hays State President Tisa Mason: Base salary: $355,000, up from $331,000. Other compensation, $0, unchanged from a year ago. Total: $355,000.

A salary for incoming Pittsburg State President Thomas Newsom hasn’t yet been approved.