Nebraska Wesleyan University’s campus was in an uproar last March, when word got out that the university’s president, Jeanie L. Watson, had implied that there was a link between her “smooth” departure and a big retirement payoff, then described as amounting to $723,585.

The chatter last year was off the mark. Ms. Watson actually got $965,929, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.

The newspaper, which based its article on a just-released federal tax form from the university, reported that Ms. Watson’s pay for last year included severance, salary, bonus, and other benefits such as health and life insurance, with some of the compensation as yet unpaid.

In a letter Ms. Watson sent to members of the university’s governing board in January 2006, she said: “It is a time for the board to be financially generous and for me to speak positively about Wesleyan and the board.”

The board’s chairman, Larry L. Ruth, told the newspaper that the generosity bestowed on Ms. Watson would not come from tuition or undesignated alumni gifts. Rather, it would come from a combination of reserve funds and donations specifically raised to pay off her retirement package.