The Board of Regents is looking at ways to bring faculty salaries up to state and national averages.

During its Personnel and Operations Committee meeting Wednesday, the Regents compared faculty salaries at NIU, Illinois State University and Sangamon State University on four national scales. The Regency system’s salaries fell below the national average on all four scales.

“The purpose here was to review faculty compensation levels to come up with a benchmark for comparing our universities,” said Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves.

The three universities fell below the average scales compiled by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors, the State of Illinois and the University of Arkansas. On these scales Regency faculty salaries average 5 to 6 percent below the state average and fall even further from the national average.

The majority of discussion during the committee meeting was about how the Regents would deal with these numbers. The general consensus of the Regents was to find a way to lift their salaries to the average.

“In looking forward, the committee has to adopt a methodology of looking at this and one standard (or scale) to work from,” Groves said.

Some Regents voiced concerns about the problems of trying to chase after and meet the state average of salaries. Groves replied that the Regents never intended to meet the state average.

“Five years ago we were either at the average or very close to it,” Groves said. “A number of years ago, the board aspired to be above the average, but we never made it. But it has never been the goal of the board to be at the average.”

NIU President John La Tourette criticized the state’s lack of funding for faculty salaries in recent years.

“In the last three years the state has provided money for salary increases. Most of the increase has been born by reallocation and the tuition increases,” he said.

La Tourette suggested the Regents request funds from the state to raise salaries by 5 or 6 percent in their upcoming budget. He said this might encourage the legislature to allocate more money to salary increases.

“We are 5 to 6 percent below the national average, and 3.5 percent from the state is not going to get us to the average. We will continue to fall behind further as we have in the past years,” he said.

In recent years the IBHE has encouraged universities to raise their faculty salaries to be more competitive against other schools in the nation.

“The IBHE has discussed erosion in the issue of faculty salaries, but they have done very little to help it,” Groves said.