NC State’s Chancellor Randy Woodson was the nation’s highest paid president of a public university in 2021. Woodson’s total salary was nearly $2.3 million, including a $1.7 million bonus, from which he donated $1.5 million back to the school.
Woodson gave $1.15 million to a tuition scholarship fund for dependents of University employees, $100,000 to the Extraordinary Student Opportunity Fund and additional donations to other university programs, including the Student Emergency Fund.
Mike Giancola, assistant vice provost of Student Ombuds Services and Student Ombudsperson, shared how important donations are for the Student Emergency Fund.
“Our Student Emergency Fund and Pack Essentials program wouldn’t exist were it not for the generous support of our alumni, our faculty and staff, and members of the University community,” Giancola said. “We rely on donations in order to be able to provide the support that we do for students.”
Giancola said NC State studies demonstrated student need.
“In the 2020 study, 23% of our student body had some form of food insecurity, and about 15% of the student body had some form of housing insecurity in the previous 12 months,” Giancola said.
Giancola also said the pandemic increased student need for these programs.
“We’ve had over 6,000 applications [for Pack Essentials] since the pandemic started,” Giancola said. “The number of folks coming through the Feed the Pack pantry over the last couple of years has been dramatically increased as well.”
Giancola said donations provide funds to support students experiencing food or financial insecurity with the goal of helping students not just survive — but thrive.
Last fall, the NC State Board of Trustees awarded Woodson this bonus for his work in a 2015 retention package. The goal of the package was to increase the University’s endowment, graduation rate and research enterprise.
Business NC reported Woodson was credited with raising at least $500 million in new gifts for endowment, achieving a 78% graduation rate for undergraduates within six years of entering NC State, achieving $575 million in annual research investment and more.
The Board of Trustees raised the money for the bonus, meaning no state or University funds were used for it.
Krista Ringler, associate vice provost and director of scholarships and financial aid said Woodson’s donation has contributed to scholarship opportunities including the Employee Dependent’s Tuition Scholarship and the Extraordinary Opportunity Scholarship Initiative.
Ringler said the Employee Dependent Tuition Scholarship has awarded more than 950 individual scholarships to over 400 students since its start in the fall of 2016.
“This chancellor has made the focus on scholarships for students a huge priority, not just for himself, but also recently in the University’s Think and Do [the Extraordinary] campaign,” Ringler said. “And that has encouraged others to give — and it’s been transformational in the types of assistance we can offer to students.”
