UOG cuts scholarships as 52 university managers get average of $44,393 pay raise

Guam’s taxpayers forked out $4,506,406 before the pandemic to fund the salaries of the University of Guam’s 52 managers. To place this into perspective, that’s one manager for every 10 employees at UOG.

In budget discussions for fiscal year 2022, UOG officials told senators – as they do every year – that they need more money; among the categories for which money was needed was for student scholarships. Senators, indeed, increased UOG’s budget for scholarships by $500,000.

Late last month, UOG director of financial aid services Mark Duarte emailed recipients of the UOG Regent Scholarship program informing them there was not enough money for the Regent Scholarship, and that the scholarship will cease next semester. Kandit exposed the matter, leading oversight chairwoman Sen. Amanda Shelton to write to UOG executive Vice President and provost Dr. Anita Borja Enriquez to defend the scholarship.

Kandit sent a Freedom of Information Act request for documents, including emails, in Ms. Enriquez’s possession stemming from the Shelton letter. Among the documents disclosed were a December 6, 2021 email from Enriquez to Duarte asking him to compute the financial impact of the university funding the scholarship next semester.

“Although I already explained to the senator the shortchanged funding for medical school students and others during the previous two fiscal year (SFAP) budget, and how the extra $500,000 given to UOG (for SFAP) now allows us to fund these Pro-Tech applicants, she is still adamant that we fund Regent Scholarships albeit it will need to come from our operational budget,” Ms. Enriquez complained to Mr. Duarte in her email.

The email provides the public a glimpse into the arrogant manner by which UOG officials treat decisions affecting its students. It also involves two of the 52 UOG managers who made the decision to cut the scholarship.

And while Enriquez and her boss, UOG president Dr. Thomas Krise’s salaries are set by contract, the other 50 managers – according to a UOG salary increase schedule – have or are scheduled to receive $2,219,684 in pay raises, or an average of $44,393.68 in annual salary increase each. That is a nearly 50-percent increase in base salaries during the public health emergency, when most workers earn only half the average UOG manager’s jump in pay.

The new combined amount of base pay for the 52 UOG managers – $6,726,090 – or an increase that is more than four times the increase in budget the Legislature allotted for scholarships.

To place this extraordinary amount of combined base pay into perspective, the 52 managers of UOG, an autonomous agency of the executive branch, make more money combined in base pay than the entirety of personnel plus benefits cost of the Office of the Governor, which is $5,086,777. The base pay (not including costs of benefits) of the 52 managers only is about $100,000 shy of the combined cost of personnel and benefits of the entire legislative branch of the government, which is $6,840,727.

Here’s additional perspective: Ms. Enriquez’s base salary alone – $178,368 – is enough to fund the tuition of 30 students for a year.