AP raises vary considerably

The University of Illinois received a 4.6% budget increase this year, lifting the state's appropriation for the university to $946.1 million. Included in this year's allocation are funds for a 3% average raise for academic staff, plus 1% to retain "critical faculty and staff." As a result, departmental business managers are seeing notices that faculty and academic professionals should receive average raises ranging from 3% to 4.5% this year.

So how large a raise should academic professionals expect? The answer is not simple, since criteria for setting individual raises are not well-defined, and money must filter from the university to each campus to each college/unit to each department/unit to you. Let's start at the top:

According to Sue Sindelar, executive assistant to the president, although the state appropriated 3% for salary increases, President Stukel hopes units will reallocate funds so raises can be larger. The president hopes that faculty can receive 5% pay increases, and academic professionals must receive smaller raises than faculty. Sindelar says that this decision was made by the president, in consultation with the chancellors.

On campus, the provost issues budget guidelines each year, establishing the parameters for college-level use of funds. UIUC's 16 academic units (including colleges, institutes, and schools) and 5 administrative units have considerable leeway in using the funds they receive and may transfer funds from one budget area to another. Units could stick with 3% for raises, although many offer higher average raises (see table).

Bill Adams, assistant dean for administration in the College of ACES, cautions that not everyone should expect the college-average raise. "On a department level, the spread is a lot, and it should be in a merit-based system," Adams said. As an example, at least one department in ACES is starting with a 2.5% base pay increase, and allocating the remainder on the basis of merit, equity, and/or other issues.

Only two campus-level rules govern raise amounts this year: (1) the average raise for academic professionals cannot exceed 4.5%, and (2) raises less than or equal to 0%, or greater than or equal to 10% require special approval from the provost. Criteria used by the provost to determine whether someone deserves an exceptionally low or high raise are presumed to include employee performance and the availability of funds, although no written guidelines for these decisions are available.

Once each college-level unit decides how much they plan to allocate for salaries, department-level business managers are informed, and supervisors divide up the funds to allocate raises for individual academic professionals. The UIUC Academic Human Resources office encourages units to base raises on performance reviews, but no formal requirement linking pay to performance exists.

Academic professionals on soft money should also receive raises. Jerry Burnam, associate dean of business affairs in the College of Applied Life Studies says that in ALS, the doctrine of fairness and equity applies: "What happens for employees on hard money should happen for those on soft money." Burnam notes that in some special cases, raises might be constrained by special rules pertaining to a specific grant, but overall, the same average raise should be granted to hard and soft money employees.

As usual, raises will take effect on August 21. Although the university's fiscal year begins on July 1, the contract year for academic employees lasts from August 21 until August 20.

Average AP raises for FY99 - FY00 at some campus units: