The university has finally shown it can make a sound financial decision with its proposal to increase qualifying faculty and staff salaries by up to 4 percent by January.

While NIU faculty’s salaries are comparable to most public universities in the state (with exception to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois at Chicago), the raise is still warranted. From 2003 to 2004, professors received a pay increase of just $200 – not even enough money to cover increases in the cost of living. This is also after all faculty took a pay cut in 2002, according to statistics from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

With the growing number of applicants and no sign of a decrease in that rate in the future, it is more important than ever that NIU retain its professors. The university needs more classes to accommodate more students – and needs good teachers to teach those classes.

The way to keep faculty and staff at NIU is to show them exactly how valuable their work is to everyone in the university community. And nothing shows appreciation better than a fatter paycheck.

Under the proposal, only faculty and staff employed on or before Dec. 31, 2003, are eligible for up to a 3 percent increase; however, these dedicated staff members have more than earned it. These are the individuals who have stuck it out at NIU despite the looming threat of slashed budgets. The employees who stay employed through Dec. 31, 2004, are eligible for an additional 1 percent increase as of Jan. 1, 2005.

While some of the funds to pay for the increases will be drawn from tuition and reallocations from existing budgets, it is undoubtedly money well spent.

In a campus-wide e-mail Peters sent out Tuesday, he said it was his top priority to improve salaries for NIU faculty and staff as a reward for their work.

Now the proposal will be up for approval by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 23. The BOT needs to make this proposal its top priority as well – and reward hard-working faculty and staff with the much-deserved raises.