Bloomington Herald-Times
November 17, 2010
Many IU employees see first pay increase in more than two years
By Mike Leonard
November 16, 2010, last update: 11/17 @ 12:25 am
Many Indiana University employees saw their first pay increases in more than two years when salary increases for the remainder of fiscal 2010-11 were implemented on Nov. 1.
SEARCH: See the updated 2010-11 Indiana University employees salary database. You can search by name, department or salary, and compare salaries year to year.
Citing the national recession and declining state revenues, the university froze salaries for fiscal 2009-10 and continued the freeze from July 1 -- Nov. 1 of this year. That meant that many employees saw their last increase beginning July 1, 2008 -- although a one-time bonus of $500 for employees earning less than $30,000 was implemented in late 2009.
President Michael A. McRobbie ordered work units within the university to set aside 2 percent of their budgets for the current fiscal year to gird against further budget cuts from the state or other unforeseen financial difficulties.
Last August, McRobbie said he believed the financial picture was stable enough that the funds could be released for salary increases and recommended a 3 percent overall increase because the money would be dispersed over eight months instead of 12.
The IU board of trustees approved the request later that month. McRobbie said he wanted pay increases to be merit-based and told the schools within the university and staff units to set a general range of 1.25 to 6 percent pay increases.
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald said on Tuesday that he required all deans and managers to get permission to go below or above the range set by the president.
"There were two pieces to the salary increase. One is morale. We did not have a salary increase last year or for the first four months this year," Theobald said. "So one component of the increase was job performance and if you were doing a satisfactory job. Everybody got 1.25 percent, unless you were judged unsatisfactory, in which case you didn't.
"Then everyone was eligible for merit increases. The pool there was 1.75 percent," he said. "If you put those two components together you get an average 3 percent raise."
The IU CFO said vice presidents, deans and managers had some leeway within available funds to reward exceptional service or attempt to bring the pay of certain positions more in line with people in comparable positions across the university. "This was their one chance to do that because we're back under a salary freeze," he said.
Theobald said a large number of faculty -- more than 20 percent -- saw 4 percent raises or better for competitive reasons. "We have to be as responsive to the market as we can because eight of the 11 Big Ten universities also gave raises this year," he said. Only Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin did not provide pay increases.
For this story and the accompanying database, only the Bloomington campus and university administration salaries were examined. And while most university administration operates out of Bloomington, not all do.
President McRobbie and the vice presidents all received 3 percent raises. "We serve at the president's pleasure, so the assumption there is that we're all doing a satisfactory job or we wouldn't have a job," Theobald said.
Because of the salaries earned by top officials at IU, the pay increases are substantial. McRobbie's salary went from $425,000 to $437,750 -- a $12,750 increase. He remains one of the lowest paid presidents in the Big Ten, however, even with a total compensation package worth more than $550,000. Ohio State's E. Gordon Gee tops the list with a compensation package of more than $1.5 million.
The list of top earners in Bloomington remained fairly consistent with the salaries published in July. Men's basketball coach Tom Crean continues to outpace -- by far -- any other IU employee, with a salary of $600,000 and a total compensation package of more than $2.2 million.
After McRobbie the top earners at IU include vice president and athletics director Fred Glass ($422,300); Kelley School of Business Dean Dan Smith ($347,694); former Kelley dean and business professor Dan Dalton ($342,000).
Women take three of the five spots rounding out the top 10 earners in Bloomington, with Maurer School of Law Dean Lauren Robel, Kelley associate dean Ida F. Kesner and executive vice president and provost Karen Hanson all topping the $300,000 mark.
Letter: Archer and Hilltop
November 17, 2010
To the editor:
George E. Archer must be turning in his grave. From his three-page last will and testament filed on Aug. 23, 2007, with the clerk of the Monroe Circuit Court, case number 53C07-0708-EU-00183, his simple bequest was as follows:
"(Section) 3.02: I give, devise, and bequeath the balance of my residuary estate to the Indiana University Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation with principal offices in Bloomington, Indiana. This bequest is for the general support of the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center of Indiana University. I desire that a memorial garden be established in my name. If this is not possible, it is my wish that this bequest be used as determined by Hilltop Garden and Nature Center of Indiana University."
I do not believe any of these requests were completed.
Archer Foundation's (a/k/a Hilltop Education Foundation) own statement in writing to receive the George E. Archer bequest that was filed with the Clerk of the Monroe Circuit Court on March 12, 2008, states ". for the general support of Hilltop Garden and Nature Center of Indiana University . ." It appears the Archer Foundation can't keep any of its promises to poor George even when filed in court, yet they walked off with his $732,976.23 and then named their foundation after him.
Jack R. Leisz
Bloomington
