The UW System Board of Regents approved Friday a proposal to increase UW faculty salaries by 2.5 percent each year for the next two years.
The Regents discussed raising salaries by 7.78 percent at its Nov. 6 meeting, but UW System President Kevin Reilly recommended last week reducing the pay increase to 2.5 percent because of the projected $5.4 billion state budget deficit.
This approval will be forwarded to the state Department of Administration, which will then forward a recommendation to the state Legislature to make a final decision.
We must do our part to help balance the state budget, yes, but while remaining focused on the state's critical educational needs,"" Reilly said.
According to UW System spokesperson David Giroux, UW faculty and staff salaries are 10 percent less than average salaries at universities with a similar size and mission.
In the past year, the UW System lost five chancellors, three of whom left partially because they were offered higher salaries at other institutions.
Giroux said a salary increase is imperative for Wisconsin schools to be able to compete for new faculty considering the growing number of retirement-age faculty.
""Almost every private and public university is facing some sort of economic difficulty at this time,"" Giroux said. ""We need to do something eventually to close that gap.""
According to Giroux, UW is not the only university system that will not be giving significant salary increases. He said in the current economic downfall, a 2.5 percent increase is sufficient to keep the salary gap from growing until it can be addressed in the future.
Reilly said cutting back the planned faculty pay increase is unfortunate, but necessary because of the state's economic hardships.
""It's not what we hoped to come forward with, and it's not what the '""faculty and staff deserve, but we want the public in Wisconsin and elected officials to know that we understand the depth of '""the [economic] crisis,"" he said.
