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ISU Announces Raises For Faculty And Staff

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WGLT

ISU Faculty and staff will see more in their paychecks next year.

University President Larry Dietz has announced raises up to two percent will begin in January.

University spokesman Jay Groves said the increases do not send a mixed message to lawmakers who see the institution able to give increases without much state funding.

"We've been talking for several years now, about not high levels of state funding, but predictable levels of state funding. So it's not like public universities are asking for more, they're just asking for something, and a predictable level of revenue," said Groves.

ISU now gets less than 18% of its budget from the state.

Groves said ISU has had great success in enrollment, graduation rates, and low student debt. He said President Dietz believes faculty and staff get credit for that and should be compensated.
    
"Illinois State has been able to weather the storm thus far. President Dietz feels that it's the faculty and staff that got us here so, he wants to do what he can for them," said Groves

He acknowledges some faculty and staff have left for other positions because of the poor climate caused by the budget deadlock and the economy in Illinois, but says those are only anecdotal instances on campus.      

"We obviously hope that people have a sense of stability working at Illinois State University with or without a salary increase, because unlike many of our sister institutions, we have not been forced into furlough days, layoffs, things like that," said Groves.

Groves said the recent suspension of planned salary adjustments for about 200 employees did not affect the size of the raises now being implemented. A Federal judge in Texas temporarily halted implementation of new overtime rules from the Labor Department, pending the resolution of a court challenge. Until that court order, many institutions, including ISU had planned to increase salaries of some workers close to the cutoff for exemption from overtime, so they would not have to begin paying overtime to those staff members.

The raises have been under consideration since at least September. That was when Dietz mentioned the possibility in his State of the University address.

WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.
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