Dr. Rodney Bennett, President of the University of Southern Mississippi, found out from the Institute of Higher Learning that not only did they want to extend his contract for two more years, but they wanted to give him a raise.
The boost was about $75,000.
“I was grateful for that,” said Dr. Bennett. “But I was also very sensitive to the fact that so many of our employees had not received salary increases in quite some time.”
Not only that, 33 positions at the university had recently been eliminated.
“We’re all in this together,” said Dr. Bennett. “That’s quite a bit of money. I need to do the right thing.”
So Dr. Bennett donated his salary increase–all of it.
“So that’s what I’ve done,” said Dr. Bennett. “I’ve donated that money to the USM Foundation to use for scholarships.”
