By Philip Timmerman

President Lee Todd will not accept his performance bonus for this year, said the chair of the UK Board of Trustees Executive Committee.

The committee voted Monday to approve a bonus of $168,000 — 96 percent of the $170,000 performance based award. Todd, however, is declining the bonus as an act of solidarity with the university faculty and staff, said Mira S. Ball, chair of the Executive Committee.  Ball said she assumed the money would return to the general fund.

“Students and faculty probably will not see any affect from this because the amount is so small,” Ball said.

As a result of the $9.9 million budget shortfall, 12 staff members lost their jobs and the Board of Trustees instituted a pay freeze for all faculty and staff for the 2009-10 academic year, according to a June Kernel article.

In the 2007-08 academic year, Todd’s $95,000 performance bonus accounted for almost 16 percent of his total compensation, according to figures from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s salary database. Information for last school year was not available.

Todd’s refusal of the annual bonus comes as a change from last year, when he accepted the bonus amid controversy.

Bonuses were declined last year by the president of Kentucky Community and Technical Schools, as well as those of Stanford University, Washington State University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Louisville, according to a 2008 Kernel article. All of the presidents cited the difficult financial situation as their reason for refusing the bonuses.

Todd’s decision to forgo his bonus sparked debate among the Board members. Some members felt Todd should accept the award because the bonus is a direct result of a performance evaluation conducted annually.

Ball and board member James Stuckert said if Todd is not being rewarded for his performance, it defeats the purpose of conducting a performance review.

“The  bonus has a bad connotation,” Ball said.

The Board creates a set of 10 goals for the year that establish criteria by which Todd’s performance is judged, according to the  Executive Committee Vice Chairman Stephen P. Branscum.  Todd’s success in achieving these goals is scored, which then determines what percentage of the performance bonus he is eligible for. ­­