The University of Illinois Board of Trustees will consider a proposal Thursday that would extend President Tim Killeen’s contract by four years, through June 30, 2024.
Trustees will consider the extension during their regular meeting Thursday in the Michele M. Thompson Rooms at Student Center West, 828 South Wolcott Ave, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Killeen took office in 2015 under a five-year contract that expires June 30. The proposed four-year extension is the maximum number of years allowed under Illinois law and reflects the board’s confidence in Killeen’s leadership, which has brought record enrollment, the longest in-state tuition freeze in five decades, and pioneering new workforce and economic development initiatives.
Under the proposed extension, which would take effect July 1, Killeen’s annual compensation would increase for the first time since he took office. He would be paid $835,000 annually, up from the $700,000 he receives under the original contract. That agreement includes $600,000 in base salary and $100,000 that he received each year through an incentive-based, pay-for-performance program based on his progress toward goals set by the board. Under the new contract, that incentive pay would become part of his base salary rather than being paid separately.
With the increase, Killeen’s annual base pay would rank fifth among the 11 Big Ten presidents with multi-campus oversight.
Under the extension, Killeen would be eligible for annual increases when salary programs are authorized for U of I System employees.
The proposal also includes $100,000 per year in deferred compensation that would pay a total of $400,000 if Killeen serves as president through the end of the new contract, and a prorated share if his employment as president ended early due to death or disability. No deferred compensation would be paid if Killeen left the presidency voluntarily or was terminated before the end of the agreement.
Enrollment has set records every year since Killeen took office, topping 89,000 students last fall system-wide. Student costs have been held in check by affordability efforts that include a five-year tuition freeze for Illinois students – unprecedented in more than a half-century.
Academic initiatives are adding renowned professors to the system’s already world-class faculty ranks, along with a first-ever long-range hiring plan that will add new tenure-track faculty to keep pace with enrollment growth.
Killeen also helped lead creation of two pioneering new initiatives to drive innovation and workforce development – the Discovery Partners Institute, a world-class research center in downtown Chicago, and the Illinois Innovation Network, a system of satellite research hubs that will help spread the institute's impact across the state.
The successes have helped the system’s three universities rise in rankings of the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report and other agencies, and are rooted in a Strategic Framework that Killeen helped develop in the first months of his presidency to guide the U of I System for the next decade.
When he joined the U of I System, Killeen brought more than three decades of experience as an educator, researcher and administrator in public higher education and in leadership positions with national scientific research agencies. Most recently, he served as vice chancellor for research and president of the Research Foundation at the State University of New York (SUNY), one of the nation’s largest higher education systems.
