SIUC administrators are looking to increase the salaries of numerous office employees at the same time the University is looking to cut programs to fill a $7 million hole in its budget, a move that is both ill-timed and inconceivable. Specifically, SIU President James Walker announced last week his intentions to garner raises for nine of his office employees totaling $67,427.
The search firm of Kaludis Consulting was hired for $19,000 to examine the salaries of 21 of the 55 workers in the President's Office in order to gauge how their salaries rank among peer institutions. The employees include attorneys, assistants and budgetary personnel. The nine employees' salaries currently total $843,220, an average of $93,691. After the raises, the workers' salaries will total $910,647, an average of $101,183.
Walker expects to offset the increases using about $300,000 in money from positions that will not be filled by retiring office workers. After all of the salary wrangling and adjusting, a total of $232,573 will remain. Walker said this money, or what's officially left after the $67,427 is doled out, will be put into the SIU system. Thank you, President Walker - that leaves the University with only about $6,767,427 of a hole to fill. We appreciate the gesture, but it's little consolation.
It's good that Walker wants to bring his office workers' salaries on par with their peers and it makes sense to give remaining workers a raise if they are taking on extra duties due to those retiring, but he has to be cognizant of the timing of such a move. It is hard for some on this campus to accept that certain department programs will have to cut, including the elimination of some summer classes, while some workers in the President's Office will get as much as a $10,000 jump in salary.
Despite whatever legitimate reasons are behind the increases, it still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many. With contraction negotiations looming, the administration does not need another negative perception to emerge among the faculty and civil service employees, many of whom already feel slighted and unappreciated by administration.
And is this University completely incapable of utilizing its own vast resources? There are times when a search firm may be necessary, but it's becoming a broken record on this campus. There's a decision that needs to be made or move that must occur ... quick, hire a search firm. The more firms we hire, the more the students money is taken away from where it should be going directly: to their educational needs.
SIU has to stay on par with peer institutions in all aspects of university life, including salaries. But more than $67,000 in new raises and $19,000 for a search firm is not chump change. We our more than willing to do our part to help SIU right its financial ship, but the SIUC community should not be asked to tighten their own belt straps at the same time administrators are filling the plates of their own brass. Something just isn't right about that.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
