Sean O’Keefe’s job as chancellor may be on the line, but if he wants to continue calling the University “home” and educate collegiate minds, he will have the opportunity.
According to O’Keefe’s contract, concurrent with his appointment as chancellor, O’Keefe was awarded the rank of professor with tenure in the Public Administration Institute of the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration. The contract was unanimously approved by the LSU Board of Supervisors and signed by O’Keefe in January 2005.
The LSU Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet Thursday, Jan. 17, and the meeting will be the first opportunity for the Board to potentially discuss O’Keefe’s job future although no items concerning O’Keefe are currently on the meeting’s agenda.
O’Keefe’s tenure means he could assume “full-time teaching duties in lieu of [his] administrative duties as Chancellor,” although he is not given the absolute right to participate in summer research or teaching, according to his contract.
Although O’Keefe has the option of accepting the tenured position or opting out, it is unsure at this point if he would remain at the University should he lose his job as chancellor.
O’Keefe is no stranger to the classroom. During the spring 2006 semester, he co-taught a graduate seminar course titled Strategic Human Capital Development focusing on tactically managing employees.
According to his contract, if O’Keefe accepts the tenured position should he no longer be serving as chancellor, he will receive $425,000 on an academic-year basis until 2010 when he has worked at the University for five years. O’Keefe currently makes $425,000 per fiscal year for serving as Chancellor.
In the tenured position, O’Keefe will be paid a salary of $337,500 after completing five years of $425,000 pay.
Should O’Keefe opt out of the tenured position, according to his contract, he will be given a one-time payment of $87,500 – the difference between what his tenured faculty salary would be and $425,000. He will also be paid an additional $75,000, amounting to $25,000 for each year of O’Keefe’s three years serving as chancellor.
If O’Keefe serves for five years or more as chancellor, he is entitled to $25,000 for each year of service whether he accepts tenure or not, according to his contract.
O’Keefe’s job security came under scrutiny earlier this month when Jonathan Martin, chairman of Roy O. Martin Lumber and a larger donor to the University, sent a Dec. 31 e-mail to statewide business leaders alleging LSU System President John Lombardi told O’Keefe he “should be looking for another job.”
“I had a reliable source tell me that there was a move afoot to get rid of the chancellor, and that was disturbing to me because we’ve been strong supporters [of O’Keefe],” Martin told The Daily Reveille earlier this month. Martin said he could not disclose who informed him of the possible resignation request.
“I serve at the pleasure of the Board, and I will serve as long as they like,” O’Keefe said when asked if LSU System President John Lombardi had spoken with him about the future of his job as chancellor during a Jan 4. interview with WAFB Channel 9 and The Daily Reveille at the Sheraton New Orleans.
O’Keefe served as a NASA administrator and Secretary of the Navy before coming to the University. He is also a New Orleans native.
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]