Randy Boyd's a bargain. What the University of Tennessee saves because he skips a paycheck
It's a bonus that he's a bargain.
Boyd has grown the UT System to new heights, with near-record fundraising and record breaking enrollment. He also has never taken a salary, and it's saved a bundle.
A typical annual salary for someone like Boyd would probably be $850,000 to $1.2 million, UT Board of Trustees Chair John Compton told Knox News in November 2023.
"Every year when I do his performance appraisal, and I sit with the executive committee of the Board of Trustees, I offer him that salary. He always says no," Compton said. "He's never submitted an expense report that I know of. I know he's incurred personal expenses along the way."
The board is moving swiftly to secure Boyd for another five years after the leader expressed his interest at the March 1 board meeting.
Compton and the board unanimously agreed to “explore and formalize extending the president’s term through June 2030" in a surprise vote tacked on to the end of the meeting.
"Can I amend it and say that we pay him double what we've been paying him?" board member William Rhodes III joked.
Since he started as interim president in 2018, Boyd has accepted an annual $10,000 stipend for health care.
His current term as president expires June 2025.
What other top University of Tennessee leaders make
If he were paid at the top end of Compton's estimate, that would make Boyd the second highest-paid administrator in the UT System, according to its salary database.
UT Knoxville Director of Athletics Danny White makes a base salary of $2.3 million. The next highest paid administrator is Peter Buckley, chancellor of the UT Health Science Center in Memphis, who makes a little over $1 million base salary.
More: How much the University of Tennessee pays its top coaches and administrators
Boyd's predecessor, Joe DiPietro, earned a base salary of approximately $539,011 when he stepped down in 2018.
UT budgets each year to pay Boyd, even though it's never spent.
The wealthy entrepreneur has a history of declining a paycheck.
During his run for governor, Boyd said he wouldn't take a salary if elected. He never took a salary while working for then-Gov. Bill Haslam as a special adviser on higher education or as Tennessee's commissioner of Economic and Community Development.
When will UT finalize a deal with Randy Boyd?
Next, Compton will talk with "stakeholders" and discuss next steps with Boyd, while keeping board members updated on progress to secure Boyd for another five years.
The board meets next in June. That's also when the board would need to start searching for a replacement leader if something should change.
Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter @specialk2real.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How much money Randy Boyd makes from the University of Tennessee
