NORMAL—A 17 percent salary increase for Regency university presidents including John LaTourette might be approved by the Board of Regents today.

Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves would neither confirm nor deny the possibility of the Regents approving the salary increases.

Groves said the Regents will decide which Regency presidents will get salary increases for fiscal year 1989.

“We’ll have to see what the board does,” he said. The Regents did not discuss the salary increases during a Regents’ finance and facilities meeting Wednesday which was held in the Bone Student Center at Illinois State University at Normal.

The Northern Star revealed Tuesday that salary increases discussed during the Regents’ July closed session were about 17 percent.

Groves said there was no approval of salary increases for himself or presidents at NIU, ISU and Sangamon State University during the open session of the July meeting.

He said he would not comment on what was discussed in closed session of that meeting. The Regents met in closed session again at Wednesday’s meeting for more than two hours.

Earlier, LaTourette had made available his paycheck stubs from April to September, to show that he had not received a salary increase. His gross monthly pay is $6,935. If a 17 percent increase is approved by the Regents, his monthly salary would be about $8,000.

NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said Monday that he would recommend at Wednesday’s finance and facilities meeting that Groves and the university presidents receive no more of an increase than what was available to faculty and university administrators, which was about 8 percent.

Valadez did not make the recommendation Wednesday, but said he would make the recommendation when the Regents meet again today.

Paula Radtke, NIU Student Association president said the salary increases also were discussed before the September 15 Regents meeting when a $125 tuition surcharge was approved.

Tuesday, ISU Student Regent Dan Wagner said the increases would make the salaries of other Regency university presidents comparable to the salary of ISU President Thomas Wallace.

Regent Chairwoman Carol Burns said Wallace will not be considered for a salary increase because his salary already had been established when he was hired last year.

At an Oct. 3 University Council meeting at NIU, Groves said the Regents faculty received the highest salary increase in the state.

Regents passed about an 8 percent salary increase for faculty and administrators at the July meeting. A salary increase of about seven percent also was approved for 10 administrators in the chancellor’s office.

The Regents chancellor and his staff are the only Regents that get paid since they are full-time employees. The other Regents are reimbursed for travel expenses, Burns said.

Radtke questioned if making the presidents’ salaries comparable is consistent with the other employees of the universities. She asked if faculty are getting comparable pay.