Foundation pays partly for DiGiorgio’s off-campus living expenses

Claire Byun

byunc@thejohnsonian.com

President Anthony DiGiorgio will recieve an annual $20,000 from the Winthrop Foundation for “comparable services’ expenses for the residence,” according to the Foundation’s website. The president’s contract appropriates the amount.

The services include “phone, Internet and home security monitoring, insurance and other services,” said Kathy Bigham, chair of the Winthrop Board of Trustees, and Dalton Floyd, vice-chair of the board, in a letter sent to The Johnsonian on Nov. 10.

During their thrice-yearly meeting in May, the Winthrop Foundation agreed to pay the allotted expenses to DiGiorgio’s off-campus residence.

While DiGiorgio lived on campus, Winthrop paid related living expenses. But due to complicated paperwork and scarce university resources the Foundation agreed to pay, said Brien Lewis, executive director of the Foundation.

“Sometimes the Foundation is the appropriate vehicle, and sometimes the university is the appropriate vehicle to pay,” Lewis said. “We take great care to make sure the right entity is paying the right expense.”
In return for financing the president’s expenses, Winthrop will pay for certain Foundation mailings, according to the minutes supplied on the Foundation’s website.

DiGiorgio did not request, from either the university or the Foundation, any form of alternate provision of support services following his move to a personal residence, Bigham and Floyd said.

“That potential was raised by trustees and discussed appropriately in executive session by members of the Board of Trustees,” Bigham and Floyd said, “who felt an alternative arrangement should be considered in fulfillment of the support services obligation to the president that the Board has had in place for more than 20 years.”

Winthrop has historically provided a home for presidents on campus as well as supplied  support services warranted by the “24/7” responsibilities of a president, as appropriated in the president’s contract, the letter said. Thus the President’s House and certain support services have been appropriated in the president’s contract, which comes from state funding, Bigham and Floyd said.

With DiGiorgio’s move to his eventual retirement home in Rock Hill, the letter said officials from both the university and Foundation decided the Foundation should provide the funding.

Comparable support services to those previously financed by the state funds would be an effective means of meeting “near term, meeting Winthrop’s obligations to the President and long term, ensuring Winthrop would have the flexibility to offer a successor president comparable support services,” the letter said.

Whether the state continues to provide funds for the services or not, the Foundation will be available to support the comparable services, Bigham and Floyd said.

At a time when the university is reducing expenditures due to winnowing state sources, the president understands the need for different funding.

“It was important to President DiGiorgio that any alternative way of providing these support services to him not come from state operating funds,” according to the letter.

Both the university officials and Foundation agreed to an annual review and “reconciliation of expenses to see if any adjustment would be necessary going forward,” the letter said.

Foundation responsibilities

The Winthrop Foundation was established in 1973, but expanded in 1993 to manage the assets and maintaining gift records benefiting the university, according to the Foundation website.

It is governed by a volunteer board who are nominated by a committee and solicited for what they can contribute to the organization, Lewis said.

Members of the community and alumni participate in the board, but people outside of South Carolina also take part.

“That allows us to get a nice, wide range  of people,” Lewis said. “We try to have a nice mix; we don’t want a board of just accountants, or just medical doctors.”

Seven members of the board are employed at Winthrop but are considered ex-officio members. Three of those members are non-voting, which include Lewis, President DiGiorgio and Debbie Garrick, executive director of Winthrop Alumni Relations.

The mission of the Foundation is to support Winthrop and it’s students by encouraging alumnia and others to donate funds and other resources, all benefitting WU.

“Basically it exists to support Winthrop University and it’s students, faculty and programs,” Lewis said.

The Foundation is the principal recipient of private gifts and donations made for Winthrop, and it also distributes the donations.

“It also manages and distributes restricted and unrestricted endowment gifts, deferred gifts and special gifts to build and maintain programs at Winthrop University,” according to the website.

For more information on the Winthrop Foundation visit its website at www.wufoundation.com.