By Nicholas K. Geraniios
The Associated Press
SPOKANE — Kirk Schulz has been confirmed as Washington State University’s new president and will receive a five-year contract with a base salary of $625,000 per year.
The school’s Board of Regents also decided Friday to give Schulz an additional retention incentive of $25,000 per year.
The contract stipulated that he and his family will be provided with a house in Pullman and a condominium in the Seattle area.
Schulz is currently president of Kansas State University. He was chosen last month to replace Elson Floyd, who died of complications from cancer last year at age 59.
Schulz will take over as Washington State University’s president June 13. He also will teach engineering at the school.
The contract included his appointment to the WSU faculty, under which he will become a full professor with the university’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture upon completion of the school’s tenure process.
His wife, Noel, also will become an engineering professor at Washington State.
Schulz, 52, is a Virginia native who graduated in 1991 from Virginia Tech with a doctorate in chemical engineering. He worked as a professor at the University of North Dakota, Michigan State and Mississippi State. He has led Kansas State since 2009.
Schulz also is chairman of the NCAA Board of Governors, the association’s highest-ranking decision-making body.
He was introduced to the Washington State University community during a tour of the state last week and earlier this week.
Floyd, who served as president of the university for eight years, earned a base pay of $775,000 at the end of his tenure.
Including deferred compensation, Floyd made $877,250 in 2014.
That made him among the nation’s highest-paid public university presidents.