CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii coach June Jones gets a bonus if his team wins the Western Athletic Conference title or makes it to a BCS bowl game.
Jones deal is without
academic incentivesUH does not identify
the donors who fund
the coach's salaryComplete text of Jones' contract
Vegas gets serving of aloha
Calls blown in USC game
UNLV familiar for Fuga
University of Hawaii football coach June Jones' new $800,000-a-year contract provides for a $20,000 bonus if UH wins the Western Athletic Conference title and a $50,000 bonus if the team makes it to a major bowl game.
But the five-year deal does not include incentives for his team's academic performance, nor does it identify the names of private donors who are footing part of Jones' pay.
The university released the details of Jones' new pact yesterday. It will double his current $400,000-a-year salary and make him the state's highest-paid employee ahead of UH President Evan Dobelle, who earns $442,000 a year.
Jones, who is in Las Vegas where the Warriors play University of Nevada-Las Vegas today, declined comment on his contract. He has turned down more lucrative offers to stay at UH.
UH officials have stressed that Jones' contract is paid for by football ticket sales and not by taxpayer money.
Yesterday, Dobelle defended Jones' pay as well deserved, saying the university is "lucky to have him."
Under the terms of the 14-page contract that is retroactive to July 1, Jones receives a base salary of $400,008 a year, which is double the $200,000 base pay he earned under his previous contract.
The university agreed to pay Jones another $400,008 a year, which will be funded by private donors through the UH Foundation. Jones and the foundation have declined to identify the donors.
The deal also provides for about $140,000 a year in potential incentives and perks. They include:
>> A $50,000 bonus if the football team is invited to a Bowl Championship Series game.Incentives for the football team's academic performance are absent from Jones' new contract. Under Jones' previous five-year deal, he was eligible for a $10,000 payment if his first-year scholarship players collectively earn a 2.7 grade-point average. He was eligible for another $10,000 bonus when his team's academic achievement reached a level set by the UH athletic director and himself.>> A $20,000 bonus if the team plays in the Aloha Bowl or any other non-BCS bowl game.
>> An extra $10,000 bonus for winning a non-BCS bowl game.
>> A $20,000 bonus if the football team wins the WAC championship.
>> Another $20,000 bonus if Jones is named national coach of the year.
>> A $10,000 bonus for being named WAC coach of the year.
>> A $15,000 bonus if the university sells 32,500 season tickets and another $15,000 bonus if season ticket sales top 40,000.
>> The use of two courtesy cars and two annual parking permits at UH and six Aloha Stadium parking passes for each UH football game. An annual UH parking pass costs about $336, and parking at Aloha Stadium costs $5 a game.
>> Ten round-trip airline tickets to anywhere on the mainland. Since 1999 the university has paid about $11,000 in air-fare costs for Jones and his family.
>> If he is fired before his five-year term is up, the university has to pay Jones $400,000 a year until the end of his contract. Jones can walk away in the fourth and fifth years of the contract to take a job as an NFL head coach.
Jones received none of the academic bonus during the past five years, although he has requested it for this year. A university official said that request in being reviewed.
UH athletic director Herman Frazier said the academic incentives were dropped because he and Jones felt that a player's classroom success should be part of the coach's basic job.
Noel Kent, a University of Hawaii ethnic studies professor, said the elimination of the academic incentives "sends a terrible message that football is more important that the education of students."
Kent said the coach's pay raise has been demoralizing to the budget-squeezed faculty.
"We've lost our perspective on what the university is here for," added Graham Parkes, a UH philosophy professor. "I always thought that sports were secondary to the main purpose of a university. I'm just wondering if the priorities seem to be completely haywire."
The release of the contract comes a month after the state Office of Information Practices concluded that there is significant public interest to justify its release. UH officials had opposed the release of Jones contract for years before the local media and UH journalism professor Bev Keever sought an opinion from the OIP.
Yesterday, Keever called on the university to disclose the names of the donors contributing to Jones' pay, saying it raises the question of donors' potential conflict of interest.
"How would we like it if half the governor's salary was paid for by a private donor and we weren't given the names of the donors?" Keever asked. "The concept of private funding for a well-paid state employee sets a dangerous precedent."
Star-Bulletin reporter Dave Reardon contributed to this report.
