SIU-C officials reject faculty's pay-raise demands

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University faculty here want a 21 percent pay raise over the next three years, which they say is reasonable despite $10 million in recent budget cuts.

Union representatives have been meeting with school officials since February on a contract to replace the one that expired June 30, James Kelly, a journalism professor and union spokesman, said Wednesday.

The campus can afford the raise by trimming areas of the budget that remain fat, he said, even though state cuts have shrunk this year's budget by $10 million compared to last year's.

A new study showed administrative costs at the Carbondale campus are $8 million above average for state universities, and the raises would cost the school the same amount, Kelly said. "You do the math," he said.

School officials have not yet made a counteroffer, said Worthen Hunsaker, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and lead negotiator. But when they do, it will fall short of the faculty's demands, he said.

"Most SIU-C employees will not receive a salary increase for the current fiscal year, and last year the university laid off about 30 employees when forced to cut expenditures," Hunsaker said.

"It is the university's position that any settlement must be grounded in economic reality," he said.

SIU-C faculty average $60,200 annually, he said. Public-university professors in Illinois average $66,000, according to a new study by the state Board of Higher Education.

Kelly, who earns around $50,000 as an associate professor after 12 years, said SIU-C salaries should be compared to doctorate-level universities across the country.

On that basis, local professors earn far less than the $89,600 national average computed by the Chronicle for Higher Education, he said.

Kelly said union members have authorized leaders to file an intent-to-strike notice, but officials have no plans to do so. The two sides are scheduled to meet again in October.