Lincoln University president gets 11.5% pay raise

Curators cite number of successes achieved in Rome's tenure

Lincoln University Curators like the job Kevin Rome is doing.

During a closed-meeting telephone conference Thursday morning, the board voted to raise Rome's salary by 11.5 percent - to $223,000 a year (from the current $200,000) - effective Jan. 1.

"Dr. Rome was the lowest-paid university president in the state of Missouri," Board President Winston Rutledge explained Thursday night, "and we felt that Lincoln University needed to be recognized - and I'm not sure that's the right word - but that's one way of saying that we are proud of what we're doing, we're proud of what we are.

"And our president should be paid as much as some of the other university presidents in the state of Missouri."

Based on the curators' research, Rutledge said, Rome's new salary should be a little higher than the second-lowest university president in the state, "until they change theirs."

On Jan. 1, Rome will be have been LU's president for just 18 months.

Rome has been paid the $200,000 salary since starting at the university in Jefferson City on June 1, 2013 - plus $24,200 for insurance, housing, transportation and other benefits.

In her last year as president, before she retired in August 2012, Carolyn Mahoney earned $179,025 a year, plus benefits.

Rome's short tenure already has seen a number of successes, Rutledge said.

"Our enrollment's up. The dorms are full," he noted. "Among the things we did was, we increased our retention rate this year, keeping students in school. We've done well in recruiting new students.

"And we think that's an indication that the leadership is doing what needs to be done for Lincoln University."

He noted all Lincoln staff are getting "for the first time in several years, a 3 percent increase in their salaries this year."

And, he said, LU is "in a position where the university will be able to, hopefully, gain a little bit financially this year, in spite of what's happening at the state level. That's our biggest challenge - that the state support is not as great as it used to be, and we're having to increase our enrollment and do things like fill our dorms to meet our budget goals."

Curators also voted Thursday morning to extend Rome's contract four years, through May 31, 2020 - it currently ends May 31, 2016.

In his first 18 months as Lincoln's chief executive, there has been a lot of reorganization, job shuffling and some terminations, including the elimination of several vice president positions.

But Rutledge doesn't "see that as an issue" for LU and its faculty, staff and students.

Noting Lincoln once was called "The Harvard of the Midwest," Rutledge said curators and Rome have a goal "to regain that status, and that doesn't come without change. I think the changes that have been made were positive, and have enhanced the services that we provide to students."

He said the current changes should not be seen as a rejection of the leadership of former President Mahoney.

"Dr. Mahoney and others before her started that process, and one of the challenges was to find someone who would continue to move that forward," Rutledge said, "and I think that's what we're seeing Dr. Rome doing, is moving Lincoln forward in its position among universities in Missouri."

The board agreed to add a provision to Rome's contract, for snow removal and lawn care at the Romes' residence - services that would have been automatic at the President's House, 601 Jackson St., if the president and his family were living there, Rutledge said.

But no LU president has used the home in nearly 15 years, since a mold and mildew problem drove the David Henson family out of the house and into a private home.

Mahoney and her family, and now Rome's family, have purchased personal homes away from the LU campus.

Repairs and renovations have allowed the President's House to be used for ceremonial occasions in recent years.