Illinois might soon be regarded as an “untouchable” state for higher educators if a low faculty salary trend continues, according to last week’s discussion of the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s proposed 6 percent salary hike.

The predicted 4.5 to 5 percent inflation rate would render the hike almost meaningless, university officials argued.

“Last year almost all of the people who left here (NIU), left to go out of state,” said NIU Associate Provost Francis Nowik. “We’re not doing as much as we should have or could have.”

Increasing the urgency for nationally competitive salaries is the expected wave of retiring professors in the next decade, Nowik said.

William Eaton, IBHE Advisory Committee member said because Illinois has a “very sporadic, inconsistent record” concerning salary issues, quality educators leave the state for better wages and morale is low among instructors who stay, affecting their productivity in ways which he said could not be measured in numbers but “in more quiet, subtle and in a destructive way.”

Eaton said a third effect of low wages was potential educators, “the cadre of unnamed individuals that represent our future,” who look elsewhere for jobs because of Illinois’ salary reputation.

“I suggest that if our varsity athletic teams were in the same low quartile as our faculty salaries, we would be more concerned,” said Mitchell Vogler, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers’ Universities Council and University Professionals of Illinois.

Board Executive Director Richard Wagner acknowledged the salary problem, but could offer only reallocation of state funds at individual schools to supplement salary packages.

University of Illinois President Stanley Ikenberry said although reallocation might add a percent to the package, if all other budget recommendations are not passed by Governor James Thompson and the general assembly, reallocation might be spread thinner.

NIU President John La Tourette said, “We are looking at reallocation. We are looking at trying to maximize that salary package regardless of what we receive, but our ability to maximize that salary package depends on how large that package is.”

La Tourette said university officials had pushed for a 6.5 to 7 percent wage hike because of the likelihood of legislative trimming. If money is cut for needy library resources, for example, “our flexibility to reallocate will be reduced rather significantly,” La Tourette said.

Pleas were made for an extension, possibly a permanent one, of the temporary tax surcharge which increased the fiscal year 1990 budget.

One board member said in this state election year, the public, whose support for higher education made the surcharge possible, needs to know “that this (the surcharge) is one of the key issues that’s going to be decided in March (primaries) and November and that (their) support be mobilized because, if after these elections, we decide to put on a big campaign in 1991, it may well be too late.”