IU Trustees approve faculty raise, name change for HPER

The IU Board of Trustees met June 23 and June 24 at the IU-South Bend campus and approved next year’s budget as well as a major change for the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.


IU trustees unanimously approved a $3 billion budget for the 2011-2012 academic year.

The budget includes an additional $15.3 million for student financial aid and provides funding for pay increases.

It also includes $1.8 billion for operating expenses and $1.2 billion for medical services, residence halls and research projects.

Across the IU campuses, faculty and staff will see their salaries rise by an average of 1.5 percent, with individual increases to be determined on a merit-basis.

In Bloomington and at IUPUI, an additional 1 percent has been allocated for
“retention” increases for top faculty members. On those campuses, faculty salaries will increase by an average of 2.5 percent.

About 20 percent of faculty members on the two campuses will see increases of 3 percent or higher as part of an effort to retain top faculty members.

IU’s employees will be individually notified over the next few weeks in regards to how much their raises will be.

In an email sent to faculty and staff Thursday, President Michael McRobbie alerted the employees to the possibility of a raise and thanked them for their work; however, he apologized the raise wasn’t more substantial.

The reasoning of why the raise wasn’t more significant, he said, was due to the “many financial constraints” the University is facing, including a cumulative $90 million loss of state funding over the past three years.

“I am extremely proud of the commitment and dedication I see every day among our faculty and staff,” McRobbie said in the email. “And I can say without hesitation that this raise, modest as it is, has been well earned.”

At the meeting, Vice President Neil Theobald said the reason the budget was able to include a salary increase was because of record enrollment at IU campuses and because the University found significant savings in reduced administrative costs.

Theobald also said many IU students will benefit from a $51.8 million increase in financial aid grants across the seven IU campuses.

That brings the total amount available for financial aid to $323.4 million — a 19 percent increase from last year.

In May, the trustees approved a 5.5 percent raise in tuition and fees for resident students at IU-Bloomington, as well as a 6.7 percent raise for nonresident students.

This will result in an allotted $12.9 million for maintenance and improvement projects on all IU campuses, the trustees said. IU has a current maintenance backlog of more than $600 million.

The new budget will take effect on July 1.

The trustees also approved the IU Public Health Initiative.

According to a press release, the initiative is an effort by the University to “address pressing health needs across the state through the establishment of the state’s first schools of public health.”

Because the initiative was approved, HPER’s name will be changed to the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, and another school of public health will be created
at IUPUI.

The changes will not happen immediately, however, as the vote allows for certain steps that still need to be taken, including presentations to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and the Council on Education for Public Health.

IU officials first announced plans to create schools of public health at IU Bloomington and IUPUI in 2009, citing Indiana’s poor ranking in major public health benchmarks such as obesity, diabetes and tobacco use.

The two schools will examine issues present to their respective campuses.
The Bloomington campus will focus on rural communities, emphasizing social, behavioral and community health-based research and environmental health.

IUPUI will focus on urban health, health policy, biostatistics and epidemiology.

In the press release, IU Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs Edwin Marshall, who chairs the council overseeing the initiative, said it is a step toward making a positive change in Indiana’s public health.

“Today’s action by the Board of Trustees positions the Indiana University Public Health Initiative to make a significant difference in addressing 21st-century challenges with effective solutions to complex public health problems,” Marshall said.

— Jake New