Temple's Hart will head University of Arizona

It's official: Temple President Ann Weaver Hart will become the new president of the University of Arizona. She was voted in Friday morning by the university's board of regents.

Hart will receive a salary-and-benefits package worth $620,500 annually, plus moving and transition expenses. She starts her new job July 1.

But the Tucson school might not be the only place from which she will be collecting a salary over the next year.

When Temple announced in September that Hart would be leaving, a school official said she also would receive a sabbatical for the 2012-13 school year.

Faculty typically earn their salaries when they are on sabbatical and have to return to work for at least a year afterward.

Hart received salary and compensation of $707,947 for fiscal 2010, including base pay of $535,903 and a $70,000 bonus.

Temple spokesman Ray Betzner declined to comment when asked whether Hart would still receive her sabbatical even though she had a new job. He said he would not comment on compensation issues for Hart.

Hart will remain at Temple through the end of the 2011-12 academic year.

The school eventually will have to disclose any compensation paid to Hart on 990 tax forms. But because the state-related universities, including Temple and Pennsylvania State, are not fully under the state's Right to Know law, they are not required to release the information immediately.

Hart spent the last week in Arizona, answering questions and outlining her vision for the university.

Bob McLendon, Arizona board of regents chairman, had warm words for her.

"We have the utmost confidence that she will lead the University of Arizona to new heights, providing a comprehensive, high-quality learning environment for students; advancing the university's ambitious research goals and agenda; and creating a positive and lasting influence on the state," McLendon said in a statement.

Hart declined a request Friday to be interviewed.

The idea of paying her additional money didn't sit well with Art Hochner, president of Temple's faculty union.

"I don't think it's a great idea to be spending a lot of money," Hart said, "at a time when the university is claiming it has a money problem because of state funding."

Gov. Corbett has slated Temple and two other state-related schools - Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh - for a 30 percent funding cut in his 2012-13 budget.

If the university is giving her additional compensation through a sabbatical or a consulting contract, it should be open about those terms, Hochner said. The university should be covered under the Right to Know Act, he said.

Penn State also declined this week to release the pay and terms under which former President Graham B. Spanier remained as a tenured faculty member at the school. A university spokesman said a confidentiality clause in the departure contract negotiated with Spanier prevented the university from disclosing the financial arrangement.

Several Temple board members reached this week said they were not sure whether Hart would get the yearlong sabbatical for professional development or any other additional compensation upon her departure.

At the time she announced she was leaving, Hart said she needed to tend to her sick mother in Utah. She said she would remain at Temple through the 2011-12 school year, her sixth at the helm of the school.