In this file photo from May 2021, William Tate gives his first press conference as LSU president-elect with members of the LSU Board of Supervisors behind him. (JC Canicosa/Louisiana Illuminator)
LSU President William Tate’s contract allows him to nearly double his pay if he meets certain goals, most of which the university has routinely met for years.
The LSU Board of Supervisors signed off on Tate’s new contract in June, though the contract and the incentive pay were not finalized until August.
The new contract was in negotiations for several months before the board approved it, former LSU Board of Supervisors member Jay Blossman said in an interview with the Illuminator. Blossman, who left the board in June after not being reappointed by Gov. Jeff Landry, said Tate wanted to renegotiate the five-year contract the board approved in 2021 to get a higher salary.
Blossman opposed the deal, as he believes Tate and other LSU employees who’ve renegotiated their contracts — including women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey — should serve out the full term of their deals before getting raises.
“That’s the way it is in the real world,” Blossman said. “I’ve learned that academia is a little different.”
Tate can be awarded a total of $650,000 in bonuses annually if he meets the eight goals.
An annual bonus of $100,000 rests on LSU’s Baton Rouge campuses spending $125 million on research and its system research expenditures surpassing $300 million. According to data from the National Science Foundation, the Baton Rouge schools spent $344 million on research in 2023, while the other system schools spent approximately $82 million in 2022, the most recent year with available data.
When calculating research dollars for LSU in Baton Rouge, the university typically combines its main campus, the LSU AgCenter and its Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Tate will be awarded $75,000 if philanthropic fundraising exceeds $50 million for the system and an additional $100,000 if giving exceeds $75 million. According to publicly available tax documents for nonprofit foundations associated with system schools, total fundraising revenues for the system was approximately $160 million in 2023. That number is down from $308 million in 2022 and $247 million in 2021.
If LSU Baton Rouge keeps 83% of its first-year students for a second year, Tate will be awarded $75,000. The university’s retention rate for 2022, the most recent year with available data, was 84% . The retention rate last dipped below 83% in 2016, when it was 82.9%
Tate is also in line for $75,000 if schools in the LSU System get at least 776 research or grant awards. If those new awards exceed $150 million, the president will be given $75,000. If they exceed $200 million, Tate will make another $100,000.
LSU spokesman Zach Labbé said the median number of annual research awards for fiscal years 2019-22 was 776. The median dollar amount for these awards for fiscal years 2017-22 was approximately $147.7 million.
Finally, Tate will be awarded $50,000 each fiscal year the difference in system revenues exceeds total operating expenses 1.5%.
The most recent year this number was below 1.5% was in the 2018-19 fiscal year, when it dipped to 0.65%, down from 2.21% the year before.
It’s possible this goal could become more difficult to achieve with proposed state budget cuts to higher education. The Landry administration has advised the Board of Regents, which oversees higher education in Louisiana, to prepare for the possibility of $250 million in budget cuts. The LSU administration has told faculty it is bracing for an even worse contingency of up to 20% in cuts.
Tate will also receive a one-time $500,000 payment for completion of the fourth year of his new agreement, which spans from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2029.
LSU Board of Supervisors member John Carmouche, who raised concerns about Tate’s contract when it was first approved in June , did not respond to a request for comment for this report.
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