After she steps down as president of Utah State College in July, Noelle Cockett will proceed to make her full presidential wage for an additional yr.
Cockett, who introduced her impending departure final month with a cloud of controversy hanging across the faculty’s soccer program, signed a voluntary resignation settlement with the Utah System of Greater Training, which is answerable for hiring and firing public college presidents within the state. In accordance with that contract, which The Salt Lake Tribune obtained via a public data request, Cockett will return to a school place on the faculty whereas nonetheless incomes her administrator pay for the “transition yr.”
That will likely be set at greater than half one million {dollars} — $540,224, precisely — the contract notes.
The negotiated quantity will embrace a $30,000 pay improve that Cockett would have been granted if she have been staying on as president.
A spokesperson for USU declined to touch upon the settlement, referring inquiries to the Utah System of Greater Training.
Geoff Landward, deputy commissioner for the system, stated the distinctive sort of settlement is out there for any college president in Utah who serves for 3 years earlier than stepping down and returning to being a school member of the college.
It’s a longstanding state coverage that was final up to date in 2004. It’s meant to encourage extra candidates within the college to use for president, figuring out they will return to their positions and areas of experience once more after serving as an administrator.
Most college presidents in Utah, Landward stated, keep within the job for six to seven years, although there was extra turnover these days and the coverage hasn’t been used lately. And it doesn’t come into play if a college president leaves the job to just accept a place elsewhere. For example, Ruth Watkins didn’t get the same deal when she left the helm of the College of Utah to go to Strada Impression in 2021.
However the excessive pay raises questions on job expectations for the “transition yr” for Cockett, whose departure comes amid controversy.
Cockett’s tenure main USU has been marked by a number of high-profile sexual assault allegations that got here each earlier than her management and continued throughout it, finally prompting a federal investigation by the U.S. Division of Justice.
Throughout the final yr, there was new scrutiny of how the Logan faculty is dealing with studies of assaults and allegations of a poisonous tradition inside its soccer program. That’s included recordings of employees making derogatory feedback about sexual assault victims to gamers throughout a gathering. The audio prompted the then-police chief to resign. The coach has apologized and remained.
Cockett’s announcement additionally got here shortly after the resignation of USU Athletic Director John Hartwell, who apologized final month for a video that confirmed him repeating a part of a vulgar joke whereas he was away at a bowl sport for the varsity in 2019.
Landward stated there aren’t any particular necessities for Cockett in returning to a school place.
In reality, he stated, the yr of “transition” the place she will likely be paid a president’s wage is “basically a paid sabbatical.”
There aren’t any expectations for what number of courses she’s going to educate at USU within the first yr. And there isn’t a set variety of articles she should publish together with her analysis, which most professors have.
“[Presidents] aren’t prepared to simply begin educating and researching instantly,” Landward stated.
The time is used as an alternative to “put together to reenter the school place.”
The resignation settlement says that Cockett requested to return to her college place, the place she was a tenured professor, amongst different positions, earlier than she turned president (although she additionally continued to show then). Her specialty is veterinary science, with a deal with sheep genomics.
After the transition yr, the varsity is tasked with setting a brand new compensation charge “per Utah State College’s compensation practices and aligned with the compensation vary for college within the related division.”
If she takes one other job throughout that first yr, the settlement says, the presidential pay will conclude at the moment.
The rest of the seven-page signed resignation settlement reads like a authorized settlement.
In alternate for the compensation, Cockett guarantees to drop any claims she could have towards the varsity, USU’s trustees or the state board of upper training. She additionally agrees to not disparage the college and to not share any confidential data she realized as president.
It’s practically similar language to the settlement that USU pupil Kaytriauna Flint signed when she accepted a $500,000 payout by the varsity in early October — about two months earlier than Cockett introduced her resignation — to drop her lawsuit that stated the varsity did not correctly deal with her allegations that she’d been raped by a soccer participant.
The resignation settlement was signed by Cockett on Nov. 21, someday earlier than asserting she was stepping down. However it says she had 21 days to evaluate it, which implies the settlement was seemingly first broached shortly after Patrick Maddox filed swimsuit towards the college on Oct. 28.
Maddox, a pal of Flint’s, was a USU soccer participant. He’s suing the varsity for retaliation after he says he confronted threats so intense he felt compelled to give up the workforce in response to his sharing of the recordings of the pinnacle coach and campus police chief commenting about intercourse assault victims.
That new case introduced renewed damaging consideration to the varsity.
The Utah Board of Greater Training introduced earlier this month that it has employed a nationwide agency to assist search for a brand new USU president, seemingly specializing in discovering somebody who can course-correct the college out of reports headlines.
“The Utah Board of Greater Training intends to conduct a vigorous seek for one of the best expertise accessible,” stated Lisa Michele Church, chair of the Utah Board of Greater Training, in an announcement. “Our objective is to call an inclusive chief who is devoted to the success of USU college students, college and employees.”
The board intends to have a brand new president in place by summer time 2023, aligning with the timeline for Cockett to step down.