Retired historian George Dennison remains on the payroll at the U. of Montana while faculty are cut

NBC Montana is tracking budget cuts and layoffs at the University of Montana.  By July 1, 27 people will lose their jobs. 

When all is said and done, 192 positions will be eliminated through layoffs, attrition or reductions.  Even then, the $12 million shortfall will not be resolved….

Dennison’s pay is covered by a grant from the University of Montana Foundation.  Administrators say those contracts are a good way to keep experienced professors and administrators with the university long after retirement.

Provost Perry Brown had this to say about Dennison: “He is a tremendous scholar and is doing really nice work.” 

Dennison was awarded a three-year deal in 2011.  That agreement was just renewed last September to go until 2018.  The initial contract paid $59,000 a year to work one-third of full time, or roughly 13 hours a week.  That money came out of the general fund.  It’s taxpayer money. 

We wondered what he has been working on for 13 hours a week for five years.

Brown told us Dennison is writing a comprehensive history of the university. 

He went on to say, “I have articles that he has produced while he's been on his post-retirement contract. One of the really good ones you might want to look at is a couple of issues ago in the Crown of the Continent e-magazine.”

We went to find that article.  It’s old.  The article about Glacier Park naturalist Morton Elrod was published in 2012 and is longer available online.  

Dennison has also written a book about Elrod that is scheduled to be published this fall by the University of Oklahoma Press.  The university should recoup some of the money paid Dennison from book royalties -- or will it? 

Under the first contract, the University of Montana owns all the rights for Dennison’s work.  But the new contract gives Dennison one-third of any royalties. 

The university says Dennison is co-teaching now and also has in the past.  Currently, we are told he is getting another $2,000 for a class called “The Financial Debacle of the Last Decade.”

For some students, the post-retirement contracts raise questions. ...