For all the financial success of erasing a large deficit, renovating Reser Stadium and making Oregon State a profitable program, athletic director Bob De Carolis was awarded a new five-year contract Wednesday, president Edward Ray announced.

The contract goes through June 30, 2011 with a base salary of $353,892 a year. There are bonuses for fund raising and postseason competition for the football and men’s basketball teams.

“Bob De Carolis has proven himself to be a tremendous leader for the athletics department and a valuable member of the university leadership team,” Ray said in a statement. “His vision has enabled alumni, fans and current students and staff to feel proud to be associated with this university. Bob’s abilities to manage resources and recruit world-class coaches are well known. There is no question that even better days are ahead for Oregon State University athletics.”

De Carolis, 53, joined the Beavers in 1998 as an associate athletic director, after 19 years on staff at Michigan. He became the 12th athletic director in school history in 2002 when Mitch Barnhardt left for Kentucky.

His tenure has been highlighted by one of the largest building periods in OSU athletics history. And he arrived when the athletic department was a financial detriment to the university.

De Carolis was able to eliminate the athletic department’s $12.5 million deficit and raise money for a $80 million renovation of the stadium that created a financial boost with the addition of more than 7,000 seats, particularly the high-end luxury kind.

That led to hiring of three high-profile coaches: LaVonda Wagner (women’s basketball), Terry Liskevych (volleyball) and Jim Zalesky (wrestling). Mike Riley (football) and Kelly Sullivan (women’s track/cross country) were brought in before the stadium project began.

He also re-signed successful coaches Jay John (men’s basketball), Pat Casey (baseball), Kirk Walker (softball), Tanya Chaplin (gymnastics) and Dana Taylor (men’s soccer).

“I’d like to thank President Ray for having the confidence in me to continue to lead this program forward,” De Carolis said. “We have made tremendous strides in recent years, but we have a lot of work to be done.”

The athletic department made $1,139,173 in the 2004-05 school year after expenses, and that was before the increased funding from the renovated stadium. The budget went up by about $10 million this year, but OSU expects to deal with the increase with the stadium revenue.

De Carolis reported the football team raised $22.3 million last season, covering the costs of scholarships and operating expenses for other sports except men’s basketball, which is more than self-sustaining.

“Bob De Carolis looked into the future, and the only way to keep the athletic department fiscally sound was that you had to increase the inventory of what that stadium could produce,” said Todd Stansbury, executive associate athletic director.

De Carolis’ building plans are not complete. Phase II of the Reser Stadium expansion should get under way after this football season. Almost all the fund raising is complete for the project that costs approximately $30 million.

He’s also been instrumental in the ongoing remodeling of Gill Coliseum with $3 million invested in arena renovations. De Carolis pushed for improvements to the Tommy Prothro Football Complex.

De Carolis has a record of being a strict disciplinarian. He created a tough, guilty-until-proven-innocent code of conduct last year in response to a string of athletes getting in trouble with the law. The code spells out every type of violation and punishment that starts with a suspension for every player, regardless of stature.

Read more about the Beavers on the Oregon State blog at www.gazettetimes.com.