Governor Charlie Baker Wednesday called on the University of Massachusetts board of trustees to address whether the university’s president should be allowed to personally profit from a real estate purchase when using a taxpayer-subsidized housing allowance.
Baker, responding to a Globe report that recently departed president Robert L. Caret pocketed a $465,000 profit from his sale of a harborfront condominium in Boston, said he was “surprised that the board did not seem to be concerned” about the issue.
“In the end, they subsidized his real estate play,’’ Baker said in an interview. “I would like the board to at least discuss whether this makes sense or not.’’
His decision to weigh in on the issue with sharp language caught the university by surprise. It was the first time Baker has personally intervened in the trustees’ business.
The governor noted that the revelation of Caret’s financial gain from the condo sale last month comes as many families of students need more assistance with tuition, fees, and housing. It also comes as the board last month voted to raise fees by as much as 5 percent.
In a response issued through a spokesman, UMass board chairman Victor Woolridge was noncommittal about Baker’s call for the board to focus on the issue. Press aide Robert Connolly said Woolridge noted that “issues of this nature are generally discussed by board committees and [he] sees this as the appropriate approach for any potential consideration.”
Caret, who stepped down July 1 after just over four years on the job to become the University of Maryland chancellor, collected $1.345 million from the sale last month of a condo at Harbor Towers, which he bought in 2011 for $880,000.
The sale and the profit he made is well within his legal rights. His contract provided him with a $60,000-a-year housing stipend, an amount that helped to cover payments on his $704,000 mortgage, city property taxes, and condo fees. He put down $176,000 of his own money for the purchase.
In a recent interview with the Globe, Woolridge said Caret’s profit in the private real estate transaction was not an issue for him. He also objected to putting Caret’s financial gain into the context of the board’s voting to raise fees or the lack of financial help given students.
But others, including former state inspector general Gregory Sullivan, have questioned whether the university should be helping to subsidize such a real estate deal. One board member, Philip W. Johnston, told the Globe that the profit Caret made reinforces his position that the university should purchase a home to serve as a president’s residence.
Baker did not offer any suggestions on how the trustees should handle the housing subsidy issue. In the end, he said, “it is their call.”
UMass’s new president, Martin T. Meehan, who served eight years as chancellor of the university’s Lowell campus, is using his $60,000-a-year housing allowance to rent an apartment in downtown Boston that he can use for entertaining and fund-raising. He and his wife own a home in Andover.
Frank Phillips can be reached at phillips@globe.com.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the profit Robert Caret made from his sale of a harborfront condominium. He made a $465,000 profit from the sale.