Chancellor Sean O’Keefe may have to take time off without pay because of his mounting absences as a result of his board obligations.
O’Keefe already had to take some unpaid leave last month to attend board meetings for one of the three boards for which he is a director.
Michael Ruffner, University spokesman, said O’Keefe has to take unpaid leave when his absences exceed the number of hours of leave time he accrues each month.
“The chancellor is very particular about this, and he has been since day one,” Ruffner said. “He initiated this himself. If he doesn’t have enough accrued time, he has permission from [LSU System] President Jenkins to take time off for these boards.”
O’Keefe’s hiring contract expressly allows him to serve on corporation boards, and Jenkins has said O’Keefe’s time on those boards will help the University become more nationally prominent.
O’Keefe, like many other University employees, acquires 14 hours of leave time a month.
“I don’t know why they use 14 hours when we have eight-hour work days,” Ruffner said. “Fourteen hours is only about two days.”
Since his arrival in February, Ruffner said, O’Keefe has accumulated 126 hours of leave time – or roughly 16 days – but he has taken only 120 hours of leave so far.
Ruffner said O’Keefe has about 6 hours left before he has to take unpaid leave.
O’Keefe sits on the board of the Batelle Institute, Sensis Corp. and the chemical company E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co.
His board involvement supplements his $425,000 salary with an additional $113,000.