DeKALB | The severance package President Doug Baker will receive following his June 30 resignation totals about $600,000.

The total includes the equivalent to one year of Baker’s base salary, which is $450,000 and “applicable benefits;” $137,500 for Baker’s agreement to surrender his ability to act as a faculty member within the College of Business following the end of his term; and no more than $30,000 for Baker’s “reasonable, unpaid expenses for legal counsel in relation to his service at the university,” according to the presidential transition agreement passed during a Thursday Board of Trustees meeting.

Baker’s contract, which was up in June 2018, specified that he would be entitled to a faculty position within the College of Business following the end of his presidential term with an annual salary of $225,000.

“There are no options free of consequences — financial, political, legal and otherwise — for all parties,” said John Butler, Board of Trustees chair. “This presidential transition agreement reflects a mutual agreement to affect Dr. Baker’s separation from the university and the amicable resolution of any and all matters concerning his relationship with the university.”

The Board finalized the transition agreement during a six and a half hour closed-session meeting following Thursday’s regular meeting in which Baker announced his resignation, which he credited to the NIU community’s reaction to the release of a report regarding an investigation into the university’s hiring and procurement practices in 2013 and 2014.

The two year investigation conducted by the Office of the Executive Inspector General concluded NIU paid five individuals who were intentionally misclassified as affiliate employees more than a roughly $1 million combined between 2013 and 2014 — a choice the OEIG said was because of Baker’s “mismanagement” of the university.

Baker will also be leaving the official NIU presidential residence on or before July 31 per the agreement.

Following the final adjournment of the Board meeting, a Baker Update was released in which the president reflected on his term.

“It has been an exciting, professionally rewarding and ennobling experience for both [ my wife] Dana and myself,” Baker said in the update. “I wish you the best of luck in moving this great institution forward in these very challenging and turbulent times.