President and Chancellor Renu Khator renewed her contract with the University and will have held the office of president and chancellor for seven years.
The UH System Board of Regents asked President and Chancellor Renu Khator to renew her contract as the only female chancellor in the state, giving her new term agreements that amount to $700,000 a year.
“We have just hit the tip of the iceberg on what the University of Houston System and the University of Houston flagship can accomplish,” said UH System Board of Regents chair Nelda Blair. “She has so many wonderful ideas and plans for this University. That’s why she wants to be here.”
Khator was appointed as president and chancellor in 2008 and is the first foreign-born president and second female to hold the position. She planned for the University to reach Tier-One status in five to seven years, yet accomplished it in four.
Former Faculty Senate President Dan Wells said most faculty have respect for Khator and trust the decisions she has made while leading UH.
“President Khator is a very let’s-get-it-done-now kind of person, an I’m-impatient-this-should-have-been-done-yesterday kind of person. She holds herself to that kind of standard and she expects everyone around her to hold themselves to that kind of standard,” Wells said.
“The faculty feel that that’s a good thing. We like her pushing the envelope. We like her pushing people.”
When her next term concludes in 2015, she will have held the office of president and chancellor for seven years — the longest dual leadership in UH history. No president has held the position for as long since Philip Guthrie Hoffman was president for 16 years from 1961 to 1977, and no chancellor has ever remained in office for more than six years.
Blair said the Board of Regents hopes to keep Khator around for much longer.
“The state of Texas only allows us to bind her for three years at a time, but we would probably do 30 if we could,” Blair said. “(Khator is) going to lead this University system into the next decade, no doubt about it.
“She is committed; she has made that promise to me personally.”
The new contract, effective since Sep. 1 and until August 2015, sets Khator’s salary at $700,000, a 40 percent increase in comparison to her last term, granted her a one-time signing and renewal bonus of $150,000, an annual retention bonus of $100,000 and a contingent of $50,000 based on her performance — all new to the term agreement.
“She has such passion, dedication and commitment to this University, and the Board feels that this new contract shows our commitment to Renu Khator,” Blair said.
According to The Texas Tribune’s Government Employee Salary Database, Khator is the highest paid university president in Texas colleges, excluding university hospitals and medical branches.
“It’s what we think will help keep her here, and I know that the city of Houston — particularly the business people — will be very, very happy to hear that,” Blair said.
Blair said Khator impressed the UH System in her last years in office and the Board of Regents expects much more from her in the future.
“She is such an enormously wonderful leader,” Blair said. “She has in her mind not only goals and dreams but real growth and accomplishments and wonderful things that are going to happen to the University of Houston.”
“This is where her heart is. She bleeds Cougar red.”
Performance deserves reward. Dr Khator has certainly performed and I hope she is prepared to stay at UH for a LONG time! We LOVE her – Alums from the early 80’s.
Whatever it takes to keep her here! I’ve seen this university completely turn around while she’s been here, and am constantly amazed by her dedication to us!
Please remove this wasteful of a human being! What is not so clear is that the University stil has a President that runs an institution like a business without a care for other human beings. Treating it’s workers to low pay while the President wines and dines at events and sleeps in in her lavish home (paid for by University Student). She dosen’t drive to work because a proper chauffer is here to the rescue. Note: he’s not cheap. Thank the students Khator for picking up that bill. Instead of making your life so comfortable, making interviews showing that mug of yours. Try putting it to good use and acknowledging theres workers who have not received a raise since you became president. And if anyone has a complaint, Khator won’t answer, she gets her undercover security (paid for by the students) to say she won’t be seeing anyone. Khator is nothing more than a money hungry female that has no remorse to what she does to others.
I got lay off from UH because I’m from the bottom pool of the rank system. I just wish they didn’t lies to me. I think Khator is an excellent president at UH. I never see anyone take UH so serious like Khator. She rock!!! I hope to take picture with her (and her husband 8P) again at the football game when new stadium open.
can you imagine how that must feel – really wanting to stay here and help UH because you love it so much, but being torn by the need for a few more professor’s salaries. she must have been like ohhhhh i really want to help you so muchhhh! GO COOGS CO COOGS!. But I need more moneyyyyy GO COOGS!!! I work so hard laughing with rich people all day over expensive food and being applauded and having to feign modesty and recite the same 3 talking points all the time like a public relations puppet clown. GO COOGS!!
Have any of U of H students noticed the illuminati symbols and statutes on campus? This is satanism! U of H has a hindu president. Why not a cow to worship on campus? How about changing name to “Houston Cows” instead of “Houston Cougars”.