No pay increases likely for University employees

The Indiana University Board of Trustees approved a 2010-11 budget today that increases spending for day-to-day operations by 0.7 percent, or $11.6 million.

The board did not provide an increase for faculty and staff salaries in the budget for the second consecutive year.

“Last year we decreased the number of staff members on the Bloomington campus by over 200,” University Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald said. “We have got to get the budget in a state that we can provide a salary increase.”

In an IU press release, Theobald said this is the lowest percentage operational budget increase the University has experienced in several decades.

“Tuition is going up 4.9 percent in state and 5.9 percent out of state,” Theobald said. “And the state budget was cut by six percent, or $29 million. So we’re bringing in money on the tuition side, but we’re losing a big chunk of money on the state side.”

Raising tuition, state income increase or a stock market increase are all ways of providing salary increases for faculty, said William Cast, a chairman of the board.

“If the market is down and nobody wants to raise tuition and fees,” he said, “then you’ve got your answer. Not doing cuts, which many universities have done, is a major effort by the trustees and McRobbie.”

The board set aside $17 million for “emerging priorities,” Theobald said, and is waiting to see what happens with the state budget.

“The most important asset we have here is our faculty and staff,” he said. “For the second year in a row to not be able to provide a salary increase is hard on the staff.”

Though the board is not providing a salary increase, Theobald said it did increase University employees’ health care spending by $16.7 million.

A bulk of the meeting on Thursday was spent trying to get a handle on health care, Cast said. The board agreed upon a program described as a virtual clinic that will provide people who sign up with primary care delivery and less expensive access to some testing. The program will operate through the IU Health System.

“Everything is on the table,” Cast said. “It’s designed for current policy holders, but it’s not completely out of the question that its function could be expanded. It’s designed as both a delivery product and an insurance product.”

Students will not see the affects of the cuts, Theobald said.

“Certainly the goal is to make these cuts as far away from the classroom as possible,” he said. “They shouldn’t see much impact.”

--Bailey Loosemore