OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — For the last two-and-a-half years, Walter ‘Ted’ Carter has been in charge of the University of Nebraska system. Since then, he’s navigated a pandemic, brought free tuition to less privileged Nebraskans and steered the university around polarizing political issues.
Next week, NU regents will vote on whether he deserves a hefty raise.
Carter is already one of the best-paid presidents in the Big Ten and is expecting to get a total of over $1 million.
Still, regents will vote next week to give him over $300,000 more. After supervising the U.S. Naval Academy, Carter was hired in 2019 and began serving as president of the University of Nebraska system in 2020. At the time, he was paid more than any president before him.
“We want the best, we've gone out and found the best, we're going to hire the best,” said Regent Rob Schafer in 2019 when the Board of Regents approved the Carter hire.
Now the university is seemingly doing everything it can to make sure nobody else hires the person they consider the best and are offering more money.
In his new contract, it states “the University would suffer loss if President Carter were to accept another offer of employment.”
And offers him an additional $340,000 of deferred income, paid for by private donors, into an investment account that he can only access after one year.
Next Friday, Regents will vote on this bonus and a 3% raise, bringing his annual salary to more than $962,000, before any bonuses are paid out.
Some of those bonuses include an existing clause allowing for performance-based merit pay, up to 15% of his salary. And another deferred compensation package already in his contract that pays 11.5% of his salary.
This means if regents approve the second deferred compensation package, Carter could make more than $1.5 million per year.
The vote is on Aug. 11 during the Board of Regents meeting.
Those two deferred compensation packages aren’t being paid from tuition dollars or the taxpayers, instead, it’s from the University of Nebraska Foundation.
Download our apps today for all of our latest coverage.
Get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.
