News-Record.com

A nearly $80,000 pay raise for the governor's wife and other large pay raises at N.C. State University will have to be reviewed, state university officials decided Wednesday.

Mary Easley, the wife of Gov. Mike Easley, is an executive in residence and senior lecturer at N.C. State. The school last week raised her pay about 88 percent from $90,300 to $170,000.

Other state universities have followed the policy properly, said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. But N.C. State apparently misinterpreted the policy and didn't bring other large pay raises to the Board of Governors, she said.

The university system policy requires that proposed pay increases of more than 15 percent or $10,000 be approved by a Board of Governors committee and the full board.

"That policy has been around for a good while," Gage said, adding that Mary Easley "had nothing to do with it not coming to the board."

The decision to review the raises was made during a meeting of UNC President Erskine Bowles, Gage, North Carolina State University Chancellor James Oblinger and others.

Gage wouldn't comment on the size of the raise, but said there were "much more significant salaries than hers."

Mary Easley said in a statement that she had been told that the Board of Governors must approve her raise and others.

"I am happy to have my positions, duties and responsibilities reviewed as well," she said.

Last week, N.C. State officials defended the pay, saying Mary Easley was getting a new job with increased responsibility at the Center for Public Safety Leadership and Strategic Legal Partnership. She previously taught law at North Carolina Central University in Durham.

N.C. State Provost Larry Nielsen said Mary Easley's appointment had to be approved by the Board of Governors, along with similar contract positions and that the university had been interpreting its obligation differently under system rules.

Nielsen also said that over the past two years she has built the school's Millennium Seminar speaker series into a major program.

"In her new position, Mrs. Easley's responsibilities have been significantly expanded, warranting a new salary in the range of other management and law faculty at N.C. State and its peer institutions," he said.

Nielsen said her leadership of the public safety program would help develop "best practices in the administration and leadership of ... the work of police, firefighters, port officials, emergency medical personnel, homeland security official and others."