As the University of Michigan attempts to curtail financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, athletic director Warde Manuel is taking a five percent pay cut for the rest of the year.
Manuel is among several top administrators at Michigan to voluntarily take a reduction in pay, according to a letter sent by president Mark Schlissel to the university's faculty and staff on Monday.
Manuel, hired in 2016 to a five-year contract worth about $5 million, was scheduled to make $990,000 for the 2019-20 fiscal year. A five percent cut over the course of 12 months would amount to a loss of $49, 500.
Schlissel, who's taking a 10 percent reduction in pay, said the pandemic will cost Michigan somewhere between $400 million and $1 billion. Other administrators to take a pay cut include the chancellors for both U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint.
"The actions I’ve mentioned are the result of two primary factors: All of the university’s major sources of revenue are in question, and we have incurred large, sudden, and unexpected costs due to the pandemic," Schlissel wrote in the letter.
It's not yet clear whether Michigan coaches will take a pay cut. Jim Harbaugh will make north of $8 million this year, while Juwan Howard will reportedly make $2 million.