The University of Notre Dame is asking its top-level administrators to take voluntary pay cuts to funnel dollars to help some of the college’s students on financial aid.
University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins in a May 4 post on the college’s website said the program focuses on the salaries of college’s senior leaders, which could be reduced by as much as 20% with the resulting savings redirected to support student financial aid.
“In this crisis, we must do everything we can to ensure that no accepted or current students fail to enroll or return because they don’t have the money,” Jenkins said.
The savings will benefit the university’s student emergency relief fund, which will receive dollars through senior employee donations and other private contributions. The dollars will assist students whose families face unemployment and other hardships stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, university officials said.
Notre Dame’s three executive officers, all school deans, vice presidents and leaders in the athletics department, including certain coaches, have been asked by university leaders to reduce their salaries along a sliding scale of between 5% and 20% for the highest paid employees.
Notre Dame will establish a special payroll deduction plan beginning July 1, which will run through June 30, 2021.
Nearly half of Notre Dame students received financial assistance last year in the form of need-based scholarships that do not require repayment. The median amount per student was $40,000 or nearly 75% the cost of tuition at Notre Dame.
