Foundation supplies president with $20K for off-campus housing expenses

By Claire Byun

byunc@thejohnsonian.com

As appropriated in his contract, President Anthony DiGiorgio will receive an annual $20,000 from the Winthrop  Foundation for "'comparable services' expenses for the residence," according to the Foundation's website. 

Those 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. 

This past May, the Foundation had it’s thrice-yearly meeting to discuss allocating money for DiGiorgio’s off-campus housing expenses. 

While the president 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 paying the president’s expenses, the university will pay for certain Foundation mailings, according to the minutes the Foundation supplied.

“I think it really is a balance of trade off,” Lewis said. “Instead of money being put into category X, it’s put in category Y.  It’s not additional money; it’s just put in a different category.”

Specifics on the mailings and reasoning why the Foundation is now paying for the expenses could not be answered by press time.

Note from the editor:

The above story has been updated since its original publication online and in the Nov. 11 print edition of The Johnsonian.  The original article referred to the $20,000 allocated to the president as a housing allowance. 

After press time, The Johnsonian received the referenced letter from Board of Trustees members.  The letter noted that the Board, and others, recognize the term "housing allowance" as "an amount paid to many university presidents to put toward their mortgage expenses for a private home...." 

Neither the Winthrop Foundation nor Winthrop University have allocated money for mortgage expenses for President Anthony DiGiorgio's off-campus home.  The term "housing allowance" is not a term used in the president's contract or by the Foundation.  The Foundation's website refers to the allocation as "'comparative services' expenses for the residence as called for under the President’s contract with the University."

The Johnsonian would like to clarify that our original reference to a housing allowance is a reference to the Foundation paying for certain residence costs, not including mortgage expenses.  In this particular instance, The Johnsonian used the term "housing allowance" as a more understandable term than the Foundation's wording: "comparative service expenses for the residence." However, we would like to correct any indication or perception that the university has ever funded or that the Foundation is currently funding off-campus mortgage expenses for the president. 

After publication of the original article, "Foundation supplies president with $20,000 housing allowance," The Johnsonian was asked to correct the term "housing allowance."  In the newsgathering process, we did use the term "housing allowance" without being corrected by University officials. 

The Johnsonian will also provide readers with another story on this issue next week in the Nov. 18 edition. 

Letter from Winthrop Board of Trustees Chair, Kathy Bigham and Vice Chair Dalton Floyd