Willamette University

“Donald brown, trustee, and patricia smullin, trustee: family relationship roderick wendt, trustee, and steven wynne, trustee: business relationship”

“Form 990 and its related schedules, except for schedule b, were provided to all members of the board of trustees prior to the university filing the completed form with the irs. Form 990 and all its accompanying schedules are reviewed by the controller and the senior vice president for finance and administration, as well as the audit committee. The draft form 990 (except for schedule b) is posted to a secure website that can only be accessed by members of the board of trustees. Board members are notified via e-mail that form 990 is available to review on the secure website. In addition, the audit committee reviews and discusses the return. After the form has been reviewed by all noted parties it is modified (if necessary), finalized, and submitted to the irs.”

“The conflict of interest policy is distributed and reviewed annually to those whom it applies: officers, members of the board of trustees, key employees, and highly compensated employees. All trustees, officers, key employees, and highly compensated employees must complete, sign and return the policy to the president or the senior vice president for finance and administration. The board's process for addressing conflicts of interest in accordance with the adopted above-referenced policy is as follows: "if an individual believes that he or she may have a conflict of interest, the individual shall promptly and fully disclose the conflict on a form to the chairman of the board of trustees or president, or the chair of any committee of the board considering the matter, and shall refrain from participating on behalf of the university in the matter to which the conflict relates until the conflict question has been waived by vote of the board of trustees or a committee of the board after the material facts of the transaction and the individual's interest are disclosed or known to the board or committee of the board, or otherwise resolved in compliance with the oregon nonprofit corporation act (ors ch. 65)." the board chair, board treasurer, and administrative secretary to the board monitor compliance on an ongoing basis. Monitoring activities may include review of meeting minutes by the administrative secretary to identify potential/developing conflicts or conflicts that may have already occurred and informal discussions with committee chairs or board officers to raise awareness of conflicts and potential conflicts.”

“An ad hoc committee of members of the board of trustees established the compensation for the president of the university. The committee consisted of three members who did not have a conflict of interest per irs regulations section 53.4958-6(c)(1)(iii). In order to establish an appropriate level of compensation, the committee gathered data from similar sized private liberal arts colleges located in the northwestern united states. The data from the schools was obtained directly from each institution. In addition, a nationwide review of compensation as reported on the 990's of other similar sized private liberal arts universities was performed. Once the amount was decided upon, the information was passed on to the executive committee. The executive committee subsequently approved the compensation package. The last time this process was undertaken by the university was in august of 2014.”

“The university filed for tax exemption before july 15, 1987 and did not have a copy of form 1023 on file at that time and is therefore not required to make form 1023 publicly available. The university instead posts a copy of its current irs exemption letter on its website.”

“Audited financial statements, bylaws and articles of incorporation are posted on the university's website. The university's conflict of interest policy is not made available to the public.”

“Change in value of annuities and trusts -1,848,472. Unrelated business income from alternative investments -220,029. President's housing benefit not recorded on financial statements 52,500. Other adjustment -360.”