Rutgers President McCormick, Spouse Make $100,000 Donation to Support Financial Aid Programs for Undergraduates

 NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick and his wife, Joan Barry McCormick, announced today that they are donating $100,000 to the Rutgers University Foundation to support one of the university’s most important initiatives – financial aid for undergraduates.

This gift – which will support assistance for undergraduate students based on financial need as well as academic performance – is on top of an additional $100,000 that the McCormicks have contributed to student aid programs in recent years.

The McCormicks’ latest donation gives back to the university a $100,000 performance bonus that the president recently received from the Rutgers Board of Governors.

Each year in June, the board’s Committee on Executive Compensation evaluates the president’s performance based on a series of strategic goals for the academic year. Under the terms of the president’s February 2007 updated appointment letter from the board, he is eligible for a $100,000 bonus when he meets those goals.

The committee “noted the significant progress that has been made this year (and in prior years) under your outstanding leadership,” wrote the Rev. M. William Howard Jr., chair of the Board of Governors, to President McCormick. Rev. Howard’s letter formally notified the president about his compensation for the coming year.

“Your efforts in enhancing Rutgers’ academic quality, providing improvements in student life and expanding the university’s public service mission have been remarkable,” Rev. Howard wrote.

 A report on the president’s performance meeting the university’s strategic goals for 2007-08 can be found at http://www.president.rutgers.edu/pdf/strategicgoals-0708.pdf. 

The board also increased the president’s base salary by 4.75 percent, bringing his annual base salary to $550,000.

President McCormick, who returned to Rutgers in 2002, had previously refused to receive an increase in his base salary from the Board of Governors. “However, the board believes that even in austere times university staff and faculty should be appropriately compensated for their good work,” Rev. Howard wrote.

President McCormick replied in an Aug. 4 letter to Rev. Howard, “I deeply appreciate this expression of confidence in my leadership and support for the positive direction in which we are moving as a university.

“With gratitude for the bonus you have given me, Joan and I have decided to use that amount to fund a second $100,000 donation to the Rutgers University Foundation to support financial aid programs for undergraduate students based on need and academic performance,” the president wrote. “We want to do our part to support Rutgers students, and we hope this gift will help to make a difference.”

Most Rutgers students receive some form of financial aid. Last year, more than 35 percent of the income generated by the university’s $654 million endowment was available for student scholarships and fellowships.