SUNY BIG’S SIDE GIGS
Biz-board bucks amid d tuition hikeses
SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson is collecting fat six-figure fees from sitting on the boards of two Fortune 500 firms — boosting her compensation to more than $1 million in a cushy arrangement that is provoking criticism in academia.
Johnson (right), who assumed the chancellorship of the sprawling system of 64 public colleges in the fall of 2017, was paid between $500,000 and $700,000 in director’s fees combined from IT firm Cisco and energy provider AES last year, according to her annual financial statement.
Her financial-disclosure report filed with the state reveals that each firm paid her between $250,000 and $350,000.
Johnson, 61, is paid $560,000 as chancellor of the State University of New York.
SUNY is throwing Johnson an “inauguration” chancellor’s party at its Fashion Institute of Technology on Sept. 14, preceded by a scholarship fundraising dinner in her honor at the New York Public Library on Sept. 13.
Higher-education sources said they were troubled by both Johnson’s outside financial ties and the party.
It comes just months after SUNY’s board in June voted to raise tuition by $200 for students who are not eligible for an Excelsior Scholarship.
“The optics are bad. The substance is bad. And here we are talk- ing about college affordability?” said a SUNY insider who requested anonymity.
Another SUNY source called the actions “tone deaf.”
SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis confirmed that Johnson has maintained her financial ties to the two firms since becoming chancellor — relationships that she said were approved by SUNY’s board of trustees when she was hired, as well as by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
Liapis also said no public dollars are being used to pay for Johnson’s inauguration ceremony at FIT.
She said the same goes for a fundraising dinner for SUNY’s Impact Foundation Scholarship & Fellowship program.
Johnson came to the college system with star credentials as an engineer and entrepreneur.
Before taking the SUNY job, she was CEO of Cube Hydro Partners, which builds hydroelectric generation facilities.
She severed her financial ties to the firm but still serves as an unpaid senior adviser, according to her financial report.
Johnson previously served as senior vice president of John Hopkins University and as an energy official in the Obama administration. She holds 118 US and international patents.