Fla. College Gives Outgoing Fund Raiser Hefty Severance

The top fund raiser at Florida Atlantic University is leaving after one year into his six-year contract, and is heading out with a nearly $580,000 severance package, reports The Sun-Sentinel, in South Florida.

University officials say Lawrence Davenport is leaving of his own accord to pursue a job as a university president elsewhere, the paper reports. But while his contract stipulates the severance pay be awarded in the case that he is fired, Frank Brogan, the university’s president, said the institution thought it best to honor the package anyway. Mr. Brogan said Mr. Davenport raised nearly $30-million for the college.

The decision has rankled some donors and others, who say the state school is too strapped to part with this sum of money. Herbert Gimelstob, who gave more than $1-million to the school, called the severance payment “deplorable.”