R. Bowen Loftin signed a six-year contract in 2013 when he accepted the offer to become MU’s chancellor. On Nov. 9, the day he announced his resignation as chancellor, he signed another contract, a transition agreement, detailing the position he will be transitioning into. Loftin will earn $344,250 a year in his new position, 75 percent of his salary as chancellor.
In Loftin’s transition agreement, obtained by an open records request, he wrote of his intention to move to a new administrative position with two specific roles: director for research facility development and director of university research in support of the Tiger Institute for Health Innovation.
Loftin would “lead the campus’ efforts to construct new facilities and renovate current facilities to meet the research needs of the university for both today and into the future” as director for research facility development, according to the agreement. He would lead planning for new research facilities and establish and work with stakeholder committees for the facility projects.
As director of university research for the Tiger Institute, Loftin would “provide leadership in developing research programs that meet the needs of both the Institute and the interests of university faculty across multiple colleges and schools,” according to the agreement. He would also help recruit new faculty whose research interests would be related to and supported through the Tiger Institute’s resources and research.
Tiger Institute is the product of a partnership between MU and Cerner Corp., a healthcare technology company. It was created in 2009 to develop online health records for physicians that could save the state of Missouri up to $1 billion, [according to its website](http://www.tiger-institute.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions/).
Loftin will also continue to be a tenured professor of physics and is seeking a joint appointment to the department of health management and informatics and the department of computer science.
“These joint appointments will facilitate my service as the director of research for the Tiger Institute,” Loftin wrote in the transition agreement.
He may also arrange to teach within one of the departments where he is a faculty member.
Along with Loftin’s $344,250 salary, he will also receive an annual stipend between $10,000 and $35,000 until he is relieved of all administrative responsibilities.
Loftin’s salary when he signed his original contract was $450,000. As of the 2015-16 school year, he earned $459,000 per year.
As chancellor, Loftin received a car allowance of an unspecified amount and asked that the allowance be continued until 2017. While chancellor, he was required to live in the chancellor’s residence on Francis Quadrangle; in his new agreement he asked that he and his wife, Dr. Karin C. Loftin, be allowed to remain in the residence for up to 120 days after his resignation.
When he agreed to become chancellor, Loftin received a $135,000 hiring incentive. He also received $50,000 of deferred compensation annually, to be paid in 2017 and 2020. His original contract stated that should he resign or be terminated before those dates, there would be a “substantial risk of forfeiture” of said funds.
In his transition agreement, Loftin recognized that the deferred compensation could be forfeited but asked that the forfeiture be waived “given the circumstances” of his departure. It is stated in the agreement that the second deferred compensation payment will be made to him by Jan. 31, 2016.
