Despite resigning this week, the former chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College-Northeast will remain at the school as a consultant until Oct. 31 at full salary, and he will be paid for his unused sick and vacation time along with a $10,000 performance bonus, according to an agreement with the college.
Ivy Tech officials announced Thursday that Mark Keen would resign as chancellor effective immediately because he wanted to spend more time with his ailing father.
But according to a transition agreement provided Friday by Ivy Tech, Keen’s tenure at the community college is not over, and he will provide “administrative transition and support” to the college at his current salary of $128,800.
Keen must return the college-leased vehicle he had been using but will receive a lump-sum payment of $5,272 for a rental car to use on college business until Oct. 31. The agreement also states that Keen’s daughter will continue to have her tuition waived through the fall semester.
Ivy Tech will also name Keen as the chancellor on the dedication plaques for the Student Life and Classroom Building and the Steel Dynamics/Keith E. Busse Technology Center and “will use its best efforts to acknowledge Keen at any public dedication events,” according to the agreement.
Keen, 46, did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday. The agreement was drafted and signed Wednesday afternoon, said Jeff Fanter, Ivy Tech’s vice president for marketing and communications, in an e-mail.
Fanter said Thursday that Keen announced his resignation to Ivy Tech staff Wednesday night during a meeting in Winchester.
Keen will be responsible for paying back $5,734 in personal expenses accrued while he used the Coliseum Campus facility, including facility rental, required personnel, setup, equipment usage, cleanup, damage or any other costs, the agreement says.
Fanter said he did not have an answer regarding how Keen was using the campus for personal reasons and said he could not discuss the details surrounding the amount because it is a personnel matter.
“In all cases where an employee transitions or separates from the college, we do a review and make sure that any expenses are reimbursed,” Fanter said in an e-mail. Fanter declined to provide a copy of an itemized list of personal expenses.
Russell Baker, vice chancellor of academic affairs at the northeast campus, was named interim chancellor, and a national search for a permanent replacement will begin in the coming months. The president of Indiana’s Ivy Tech system will make the final decision.
Keen was named chancellor in 2005 and has worked at Ivy Tech for more than 25 years.
