Regents approve faculty and staff salary increases

IOWA CITY - Iowa's regent universities don't yet know their state funding for the coming fiscal year, but state regents on Wednesday approved salary increases for faculty and staff at the three universities.

The salary policies needed to move forward, and university officials can adjust areas of the budgets once they learn state funding levels for Fiscal 2012, which begins July 1, Regents President David Miles said. Some modest raises for faculty and staff who have earned them are important to maintaining quality employees, Miles said.

Salary increases for faculty and staff at the regent universities will average in a range from 2 percent to 4 percent for the new fiscal year.

The University of Iowa will give faculty salary increases between 2 percent and 4 percent on average for fiscal year 2012. And the maximum salary amount for non-organized professional and scientific staff and organized graduate students will increase by 2 percent at the UI. Tertiary care employees at UI Hospitals and Clinics will receive salary increases of about 3.5 percent.

In response to questions from several regents about how performance plays into the pay increase for a faculty or staff member, Doug True, UI senior vice president for finance, said performance does play a role and unit heads are encouraged to vary the salary increases based on merit. It's basically a “zero-base system,” True said, and each college and unit with hundreds or thousands of employees takes into account revenue constraints, issues of performance and that unit's budget.

“That's exactly what we aspire to do in every case,” True said.

At Iowa State University, faculty and professional and scientific staff will get salary increases averaging about 3 percent. At the University of Northern Iowa, non-organized faculty and staff will receive the same increases as those negotiated by United Faculty - 2.25 percent on July 1 and another 1.25 percent on Jan. 1.

Any potential state government shutdown likely will have little impact on students at Iowa's regent universities, Miles said, unless a shutdown were to last into the fall semester. University leaders are prepared to operate under a government shutdown for a period of time, Miles said, but officials expect that a budget solution will be reached by state legislators before the June 30 end of the fiscal year or shortly after.

“We think there will be no impact on students whatsoever,” Miles said.