The University's Board of Regents voted unanimously to renew University President Mary Sue Coleman's contract today, assuring she will serve a second five-year term.

Coleman's salary for the new contract - which begins August 2007 - will be determined by the amount she earns at the conclusion of her first contract.

Coleman earned $724,604 in pay and benefits during the 2005-06 academic year - making her the highest paid public university president, a November Chronicle of Higher Education survey reported.

The new contract is nearly identical to Coleman's first, with the exception of an annual $100,000 retention bonus that will replace the $500,000 one-time end of term bonus of Coleman's first contract.

Although the $500,000 has not yet been paid to Coleman, she and her husband Ken have already announced plans to donate the money to the University.

Regent Martin Taylor, who chairs the Compensation Personnel and Governance Committee that undertook Coleman's review, praised Coleman's direction of the university during a difficult four years.

The review committee also hired a private consultant who interviewed faculty, staff and students about Coleman's performance.

Taylor said the committee's response was, "overwhelmingly positive."

"In fact, those words might be an understatement," he said.

Taylor highlighted Coleman's leadership during The Michigan Difference campaign, the 2003 Supreme Court case on the University's admissions policies and state funding cuts to the University.

Since Coleman took the reins in August 2002, the University's enrollment, research expenditures, private donations and endowment have all increased.

Coleman's Michigan Difference fundraising campaign generated much of the donations. To date, the campaign has raised $2.152 billion of its goal of $2.5 billion.

Coleman briefly addressed the Regents, thanking them for their support and focusing on her initiative goals, including strengthening the University's research program.

"I will work to sharpen the definition of the University of Michigan as the great public research institution of the 21st century," she said

During Coleman's first term, research expenditures have grown to $753 million in 2005, a $98 million jump from 2002.

As the state's leading public higher education institution, Coleman also said the University has a responsibility of public trust to help steer Michigan's economy out of recession.

Coleman became the University's first female president, and thirteenth since it was founded in 1817, when she assumed the position.

She replaced Lee Bollinger, who left the University in 2001 to head Columbia University.

Prior to coming to the University, Coleman - by trade a biochemist - served seven years as President of the University of Iowa.