Outgoing UT board approves $1.2B budget, names buildings, give DiPietro a bonus in final meeting

The outgoing University of Tennessee Board of Trustees held its final meeting Friday, approving a $1.2 billion budget for the coming year that includes $168,000 in bonuses for UT President Joe DiPietro and keeps tuition flat at two UT campuses for the coming year. The board also voted to name buildings for major donors to the university.

The News Sentinel reports DiPietro characterized the session as “bittersweet.” The current 26-member board will be downsized to 12 members effective July 1 under legislation approved earlier this year at  Gov. Bill Haslam’s request.

The two-and-a-half hour long meeting trailed three committee meetings that spanned Thursday and Friday, with a tone that swayed from informational to emotional to at times humorous.

In the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees’ final meeting on Friday – a gathering System President Joe DiPietro found “bittersweet” – the 26 members wrapped up business with several big-ticket agenda items that included awarding DiPietro bonuses totaling more than $168,000 and approving a $1.2 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The two-and-a-half hour long meeting trailed three committee meetings that spanned Thursday and Friday, with a tone that swayed from informational to emotional to at times humorous.

… Beyond passing through the budget and DiPietro’s bonus dollars, trustees drew attention to a number of monumental donations, naming facilities after the philanthropists behind the gifts. Among them, system officials designated UT Chattanooga’s business school the Gary W. Rollins College of Business after 1967 business alumnus Rollins gave the college a $40 million donation, the largest philanthropic offering in the university’s history.

Rollins is the vice chairman and chief executive officer of Rollins, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange corporation.

Additionally, UT trustees recognized James and Judith Herbert for what UT has termed a “transformational gift” to the Institute of Agriculture and honored them by naming the institute the Herbert College of Agriculture.

While James graduated in 1962 with a degree in animal husbandry, Judith received a degree in English the following year.

The institution did not disclose the value of the couple’s gift.

UT trustees also christened UT Knoxville’s Integrated Business and Engineering Program with the name of Ralph Heath, a retired president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and advisory board member of both colleges who completed a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in aerospace and defense at UT.

The program will be known as the Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program.

… DiPietro, whose contract runs through next June and whose base salary is $539,011.08, collected a $100,821 bonus for the 2016-17 year along with a separate bonus of $67,376 for the 2017-18 year – both of which will be paid to him in installments.

Under the board’s action, tuition will remain unchanged for the coming academic year at the UT Knoxville and UT Chattanooga campuses. There will be a 3 percent increase at UT Martin. Tuition has increased at all campuses in every year since 1984, according to UT officials.