With student rallies fighting pay increases for top university officials at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and confusion among students over the faculty raises across the Big Ten conference, it now seems apparent pay increases have not been given this year due to tough economic times.
Students at the University of Iowa claimed the president of the university and other officials are still given bonuses by the university’s Board of Regents, yet according to Interim University of Iowa spokesperson Tom Moore, officials will not receive any pay increases this year.
Moore said the raises the students are hinting at are actually performance-based incentives, which are for the next fiscal year, not this one. Moore added the board has declined to provide officials these this year.
Moore said the Iowa regents do not have to come to a decision about the incentives until June 30, 2010 and the board will see what the economic climate is at that time.
“The board does not want to take the option (of incentives for next year) off the table,” Moore said.
At UW-Milwaukee, Students for a Democratic Society recently protested against rising tuition costs because they believed Chancellor Carlos Santiago was taking a pay increase this year from $300,000 to $307,000, according to SDS officer Natasha Morgan.
According to Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of university relations and communications at UW-Milwaukee, this is untrue – Santiago is not receiving a pay increase and none of the protesting students actually contacted him about the matter.
“All of our administrators are facing the same actions as other state employees are facing,” Luljak said.
Morgan said the group got their information from the “Redbook,” a document containing staff salaries, posted online for UW-Milwaukee students and staff to view.
Additionally, Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon will not take a pay raise for this year, said MSU spokesperson Jason Cody in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. Other officials at the university are also giving back their annual raises.
“This year, MSU deans and vice presidents have agreed to give back annual salary increases to the student scholarship of their choice,” Cody said.
Ohio State University President Gordon Gee and other administrators are also returning their raises back to their students.
“In March, President Gordon Gee and his top administrators (18 people) volunteered to freeze pay and bonuses this year,” said OSU spokesperson Amy Murray in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. “Money intended to go to raises for those people has instead gone to fund financial aid for students.”
Murray said the pay freeze could save Ohio State anywhere from $650,000 to $1.1 million, depending on what raises and bonuses were offered.
The entire UW System is not offering any pay increases to any university officials, said UW System spokesperson David Giroux.
“There’s just no money for any pay increases,” Giroux said. “Officials will actually be taking a 3 percent pay decrease because of mandatory furloughs for all state employees.”
In better economic times, the UW Board of Regents typically sends lawmakers at the Capitol a recommended increase for a cost-of-living adjustment, but the Legislature has the final say on any increases, Giroux said.
