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News Release

Last modified: Friday, June 24, 2011

IU Budget for 2011-12 includes funding for merit pay raises

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2011

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Indiana University Board of Trustees today approved a $3 billion budget for the 2011-12 academic year that includes an additional $15.3 million for student financial aid and provides funding for modest pay increases for most employees.

The unanimous voice-vote approval came during the board's regular business meeting, held this month at the IU South Bend campus. The budget includes $1.8 billion for operating expenses and $1.2 billion for other activities, including medical services, residence halls and research projects.

Neil Theobald, vice president and chief financial officer, told trustees the budget anticipates that operating revenue will increase by $58.9 million, up 3.5 percent, from the previous year.

Salaries will increase by an average of 1.5 percent for all faculty and staff, with individual increases to be determined on the basis of merit.

At the Bloomington campus and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), an additional 1 percent has been set aside for "retention" increases to top faculty members. Thus, on those campuses, faculty salaries will increase by an average of 2.5 percent, while staff salaries will increase by an average of 1.5 percent.

About 20 percent of faculty members on those two campuses will see raises of 3 percent or more as part of the effort to retain top faculty members.

"Over the past three years, we have seen a loss of state funding totaling about $90 million," Theobald said. "The primary reason we are able to provide salary increases this year is that we have found significant savings in reducing our administrative costs and our campuses are enrolling record numbers of students."

Theobald said IU's 20,000 employees are to be individually notified over the next week or two by their dean or department head of how much their raises will be.

Theobald said many IU students will benefit from a $51.8 million increase in financial aid grants across the seven IU-administered campuses, bringing the total available for this purpose to $323.4 million. That is a 19 percent increase from the year just completed.

At IU Bloomington, in-state undergraduate students eligible for financial aid grants will see an average increase of $1,100 per student this fall, growing to an average of $6,953. More than 70 percent of IU Bloomington's in-state undergraduate students will be receiving one or more grants to help cover the cost of their education.

Theobald said IU's new, temporary maintenance fee will generate $12.9 million to be used for necessary maintenance and improvement projects on all campuses. Another $7 million from other sources will also be transferred into campus maintenance funds for this purpose.

Fees collected at each campus will be sequestered in funds that can only be used for projects at that campus. At IU Bloomington, the fee amounts to $90 a semester, and at IUPUI, $80 a semester. At the regional campuses, the fee is $30 a semester. IU has a current maintenance backlog of more than $600 million.

The new budget will take effect on July 1.

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