Three years after taking the dual role of MU chancellor and UM System president, Mun Choi’s pay package has quietly approached $1 million through decisions made in a series of closed-door curators meetings.
An attorney who works with Missouri open meetings law argued decisions on Choi’s salary should be made in public.
In 2020, the UM System Board of Curators voted to merge the two roles and extend Choi’s employment contract with no pay increase.
Choi’s total pay jumped from about $670,000 to about $1 million since 2020, according to compensation surveys from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.
“(Choi is) doing two jobs, and we had to adjust his salary accordingly,” said Board of Curators chair Michael Williams.
As of November, the curators were working on a new salary for Choi. They conduct a yearly review process to determine his wages, informing their decision with employee interviews, Choi’s accomplishments, curator input and comparisons of Choi’s wages to other campus heads and university system presidents.
After gathering that data, the curators conduct a “performance review and appraisal, and it’s done in closed session,” Williams said.
Within 72 hours after the closed-session meeting ends, the university will give information on the votes privately taken “to those who ask for it,” according to MU spokesperson Christian Basi. Basi said Choi’s employment contract, and the amendments to it, are also posted on MU’s Custodian of Records website.
The university chooses not to announce raises to Choi’s salary through news releases or other public statements.
“We send out releases on certain actions the board takes, obviously those that we feel are necessary for the public to know about or that we want the public to know about,” Basi said. “And then anytime anybody asks us for information, we’re happy to provide it to them as long as it’s legally publicly available, and in most cases, it is.”
However, when Choi took on the dual roles of chancellor and president in 2020, the university put out a news release stating Choi’s employment contract was extended with no pay increase.
When discussing Choi’s salary in closed session, the curators cite sections of the Missouri Sunshine Law that authorize closed meetings and records.
Jean Maneke, an attorney who works with open records and meetings law, said salary discussion should not happen in closed-session meetings.
“(The curators) need to be real cautious as they deal with this that they’re only talking about performance issues in this closed meeting,” said Maneke, who works with the Missouri Press Association.
The salary itself and any private sources that are donating to that salary should be discussed in open meetings, Maneke said.
The university would not comment on the content discussed in the meetings nor who is present in the meetings.
“I’m not able to provide any information about the discussions that happen in closed session, nor able to confirm those who are meeting with the curators, as all the contents of the meetings are considered closed under Missouri state law,” Basi said in an email. “When each meeting happens, we state the specific portion of the sunshine law that impacts that meeting.”
Despite the raises, Williams said the university is saving “mid-six figures” with Choi in the dual role rather than paying two separate president and chancellor salaries.
In the 2017 to 2018 budget year, MU’s chancellor before Choi, Alexander Cartwright, was paid $485,000 in base salary while Choi was making a $530,000 base salary to serve as UM president, according to a UM System salary report.
When determining how much Choi makes in both roles, “we look at the overall package,” Williams said.
Choi’s total pay package is made up of his base salary, deferred compensation and any benefits, including an automobile allowance, insurance and retirement. The university also provides Choi with housing. Revenue for raises comes from the university’s general operating budget, Basi said.
Choi was offered $100,000 of deferred compensation starting in 2021 and $150,000 of deferred compensation starting in 2023, according to his employment contract.
Deferred compensation is a retention tool, Williams said. Choi can only access it if he stays with the university for an allotted amount of time per his contract. Increases to deferred compensation act as incentives for Choi to stay with the university.
In part, the university determines Choi’s base salary by comparing it to salaries of other public college system presidents, including Arkansas, Alabama, Penn State and Texas. The average base salary of system presidents on the list is about $966,000, compared to Choi’s base salary of $750,000 in his 2022 contract. Unlike Choi, many university leaders who make a higher salary don’t occupy both a system president and head-of-campus role.
Before giving him a raise, the curators also consider Choi’s performance and the UM System’s standing in graduation rates, quality of faculty and research, and relationships with the state, according to Williams.
“From my perspective, and from the board’s perspective, (Choi) is doing an exceptional job,” Williams said.
Some increases to Choi’s wages came during a time of discontent between MU’s faculty and administration, said Tom Warhover, chair of the MU Faculty Council.
Warhover said he and the council, which serves as a voice for faculty on MU’s campus, were unaware of any raises to Choi’s salary.
“It’s certainly interesting given the uneasy relationship that (Choi) has had with the MU faculty …” Warhover said. “It’s surprising to see at the same time the Board felt (Choi) merited such a large raise.”
Warhover cited a 2022 survey in which more than half of MU faculty members said they were not satisfied with Choi’s performance and would favor him leaving the job, according to previous Missourian reporting. He noted that the curators may not have been aware of the faculty’s discontent when they were giving this raise: Choi’s new salary went into effect in January and the survey results were published in September.
“I don’t know enough to know whether I should resent this or applaud this because the board hasn’t told me anything,” Warhover said.
Still, Warhover said he was surprised the university did not announce the raises.
“I would think that if the board thought that (Choi) was doing such a good job, they would ring the rafters with praise…” Warhover said. “Clearly they thought he was doing a good job, and I would think they would want others to know that as well.”
“Obviously, I’d like for the board to be more forthcoming in explaining what they do, as required by law,” Warhover said. “I know that they will probably say they are complying with the law, but there’s the letter of the law, and then there’s the spirit of openness. I would hope that the board and its wisdom would choose the spirit of openness.”
This story was originally published by the Columbia Missourian.
