Boren's contract extended; OU employees get raise

Wednesday, September 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ The University of Oklahoma's Board of Regents have voted unanimously to extend the employment contract of President David Boren and provide OU employees with 4 percent pay raises.

The pay increases will cost about $5.7 million to implement beginning next month. About 50 percent of the increase will be awarded across the board at 4 percent, with the remaining raises being awarded on a merit system, Boren told the Tulsa World by telephone Tuesday from Washington.

Boren earns $273,018 per year and will receive the 4 percent pay raise, according to OU's chief legal counsel, Joe Harroz.

OU regents have in the past given Boren hefty raises that he typically accepts, then donates to the OU Foundation. Boren has said he will accept a pay raise equal to that of the faculty.

Boren donates about $50,000 of his salary back to OU each year. Boren and his wife, Molly, have donated about $500,000 in gifts and money to OU since he became president in 1994.

The regents also Tuesday enhanced Boren's supplemental retirement plan, which will allow the president to receive $45,000 annually when he reaches 70, according to Harroz. That more than doubled Boren's retirement package, which would have been $20,000 per year beginning at age 70.

Boren could not attend the meeting because his return flight to Oklahoma from Washington was grounded because of the terrorist attacks.

Boren said his trip east was a lobbying effort for funds for a $55 million weather center to be built in Norman. He was seeking $25 million in federal funds to be matched with state funds, he said.

Also Tuesday, the regents increased the salary of Regents Executive Secretary Chris Purcell to $125,000 a year from $116,184, according to Harroz.