Although Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner netted a $236,455 annual salary and a $62,040 compensation package last year — including $12,720 in deferred compensation, $23,320 in professional expenses and both a house in Eugene and a housing allowance of $26,000 — Oregon taxpayers and OUS students still pay thousands of dollars for his travel expenses.
Last year, Pernsteiner frequented luxurious lodgings such as the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., the Affinia Manhattan in New York City and the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas, and paid $193, $340 and $192 per night respectively.
Though the chancellor was afforded $16.25 for breakfast and lunch and $32.50 for dinner for the two nights between Oct. 12 and 13 when he was in the Capitol, his Hilton bill shows a $18.95 “Food and Beverage” charge on Oct. 12. In addition, the chancellor was reimbursed with $33.95 in OUS money on “shops” expenses at the hotel.
In what an anonymous University faculty member called a “gold mine of expense account abuses,” Pernsteiner’s reimbursement requests even include meal stipends for workdays spent in Portland — where he owns a house and lives.
For example, from Nov. 1, 2010, through Nov. 8, 2010, OUS paid the chancellor a daily meal allowance — called a “per diem” amount — of $52, except for Nov. 4 when he was only afforded $26. Pernsteiner also received refunds for other expenses like transportation fares, registration fees and phone calls, including a $70 taxi ride from the Washington Hilton to Washington’s Dulles International Airport.
While in Dallas on Nov. 15 attending the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities — at a cost of $400 to OUS — the chancellor spent $20.07 on “Centennial Cafe Breakfast Food” as part of his three-day, $682.47 Hyatt Regency bill, even though he received a $13 per diem stipend that same day for breakfast.
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