Trustees give Ross two-percent raise after 'self-evaluation'
University President George Ross received a two-percent raise after receiving a favorable evaluation during Thursday's Board of Trustees meeting.
Ross's new yearly salary will total $371,280 effective January 2014.
"I want to thank the trustees for this vote of confidence," Ross said. "This doesn't get done alone. These are all big tasks and planning efforts, with hundreds of thousands of people involved in the process."
Ross was given a full presidential evaluation last year and receives a full evaluation from trustees every three years, according to Board of Trustees Chairperson Brian Fannon. During this evaluation period, trustees solicit input on the university's achievements the president directly affected.
Fannon added that nearly 60-70 different groups offered input last year, including students, faculty, staff, community members, business partners, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and state government leaders, which included state representatives, senators and Lt. Gov. Brian Calley.
This year, trustees had Ross submit a self-evaluation to measure up his achievements against the goals of the university, which are laid out by CMU's strategic planning outlook.
"As part of his contract, we put in mechanisms that would review our goals, and we'd measure how it would work," Fannon said. "George's work has been a success. Did we meet all of our goals? No. Did we meet most of them? Yes. Every year, we measure the president's goals, and George did a great job of meeting those challenges."
When asked what his biggest achievements were, Ross deferred to his self-evaluation.
"Anybody sitting in a leadership spot has specific challenges," Ross said. "It's about how you react to those challenges and whether you can remain focused on them."
"The gift of that scholarship is a passion of my wife's," Ross said. "I don't have the kind of talents she does. She's been singing since she was in her church choir. We've been supporting students over the years with our philanthropy and we've always given back to the students. It's just natural for us to do that"
