Lester Lefton’s performance bonus is 25 percent of his base salary, which is nearly $418,000. Kent State Board President Jane Murphy Timken says the board and Lefton agreed on a list of goals and he met or exceeded them. Most notable is a half billion dollar construction program on campus.

“The transformation of the campus in terms of pulling together the capital investments that are taking place in the university, that’s been overdue in my opinion," she said. Also, "you look at the record enrollment.”

And Timken says the school is also fiscally sound. She called Lefton the right leader at the right time.

Board member Dennis Eckart referred to the building boom on campus saying, “In several years, you’re not going to recognize this place.”

Lefton ticked off a few reasons.

“We’ll build a new architecture building, a new technology building; we’ll re-hab completely the art building with an annex added on to it; we’ll add on and renovate the science complex. “

It’s already hard to recognize downtown Kent, which has its own building boom. The university played a role in that with a new hotel and conference center scheduled to open in June. Lefton says it’ll be good for the university.

“It creates an environment that we hope will ultimately rival that of Madison or Ann Arbor or Austin.”

To help pay for construction, the board approved hikes in school fees and raised room and board 3.9 percent. It also raised tuition 3.9 percent for its College of Podiatric Medicine. The board will await a final state budget before setting tuition levels for the rest of the university. 

The board did finalize a collective bargaining agreement with non-tenure track instructors. They’ll get a 2 ¼ percent raise next year, and 2 percent raises the for each of the next two years.  

The board of trustees also conferred an honorary doctorate to Kent State graduate Jeffrey Richmond. Richmond grew up in Garrettsville and became a composer, actor and TV producer. He’s also known for being married to Tina Fey.