Caret’s employment agreement guarantees him a six-month sabbatical if he remains on the job for three years and a yearlong sabbatical if he stays for five years. Caret earns $425,000, but his contract, signed last year, calls for raises of $25,000 in each of the next two years.
The contract also provides for a $60,000 housing allowance, a $63,750 retirement annuity, an additional $250,000 in deferred compensation set aside over the next three years, and annual performance bonuses of up to 15 percent of his salary.
If Caret joins the UMass faculty after his presidency, he will make at least three-fourths of his presidential salary in his first year as a professor and at least half after that.
If Caret is fired without cause, he would be entitled to the remainder of his salary under his employment pact, the right to become a full-time faculty member at UMass Lowell at a reduced salary, and to take any sabbatical he has earned.
Details of Caret’s deal, on top of Wilson’s, are sparking complaints among faculty, students, and some lawmakers.
“At a time when students and parents are struggling to pay tuition and fees, these salaries are another example of misplaced priorities,’’ said Tess George, an adjunct professor at UMass Lowell. “The difference between these payouts and the salaries earned by adjunct faculty is astounding.’’
Caret said that the package is justified.
“Given the facts, reasonable people understand that sabbaticals are earned as part of a compensation package,’’ he said Thursday. “They are not a gift.’’
“Leaders and their teams generate hundreds of millions of critical nonstate dollars,’’ he added. “I understand the concerns, but the alternative is worse - mediocre leadership that will not provide the institutions we need and desire… . Do I have a sensitivity about this issue? Yes. Apologies? No.’’
He added that his two previous employers, Towson University in Maryland and San Jose State University in California, also offered him the perk.
