NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University's second-highest ranking administrator stepped down earlier this summer, but he is still eligible for a $400,000 deferred compensation payout next year when he rejoins the school's faculty, campus officials said today.

Phil Furmanski, 64, resigned as the state university’s executive vice president for academic affairs in June to take a one-year paid leave to return to his previous work as a cancer researcher and prepare to return to teaching. At the time, university officials said his new pay had not been decided.

Today, Rutgers officials released Furmanski’s new compensation package. Under the deal, Furmanski will continue to receive his $450,000-a-year vice president’s salary until his one-year research leave concludes June 30, 2012, said Rutgers spokesman E.J. Miranda. If he returns to teaching, his pay as a professor will be $290,000 a year, making him one of the highest paid professors at Rutgers.

But Furmanski will also be eligible for a $400,000 bonus check if he stays at Rutgers until July. The extra pay is the result of a deferred compensation agreement the university offered Furmanski three years ago to entice him to stay at Rutgers when he was being courted by other universities looking for a president.

"In July 2008, after Dr. Furmanski was a finalist for the presidency at other well-regarded universities, Rutgers responded by offering Dr. Furmanski deferred compensation of $100,000 annually if he continued his employment at Rutgers for four more years," Miranda said. "Therefore, Dr. Furmanski is eligible to receive $400,000 in deferred compensation on July 1, 2012."

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Furmanski was not available for comment today, a campus spokesman said.

The new compensation agreement comes in the wake of controversy over Rutgers President Richard McCormick’s new salary. McCormick announced in June he will step down from the $550,000-a-year president’s job next year to return to teaching history at Rutgers. Under his contract, he will receive $335,000 a year as a professor, making him the highest-paid teacher on campus.

McCormick’s new salary angered many members of Rutgers’ faculty and staff unions. The university has frozen the salaries and canceled raises for union members since last year, citing the school’s budget problems. At Rutgers Board of Governors meeting in recent months, union members waved blown-up copies of mock dollar bills and signs protesting Furmanski and McCormick’s salaries.

McCormick said he asked Furmanski to stay on as vice president so they could both end their terms together next year. But Furmanski said he wanted to take his paid leave to restart his cancer research before he got any older.

"The sabbatical is really a time for me to retool," Furmanski said in May.

Rutgers is conducting a nationwide search to replace Furmanski. Dick Edwards, the dean of Rutgers School of Social Work, is being paid $310,000 a year to serve as interim executive vice president.