The Board of Trustees Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee unanimously approved a proposal Wednesday, outlining an up to 4-percent raise for NIU faculty and staff.

The estimated cost of the raises to NIU is between $4 and $5 million.

The increase must be approved at the next full BOT meeting at 9 a.m., Sept. 23 at the Holmes Student Center Clara Sperling Skyroom.

If passed, faculty and staff will receive the raises by October, NIU President John Peters said.

The pay increase has been planned for months but wasn’t announced until Tuesday, Peters said.

“Once we knew we would remain at a flat budget, we went and put together the plan,” Peters said.

Peters said he fought to get the best for the faculty and staff.

“We have been very conservative with our budget, but I wanted to be risky and get the highest percent I could get and still meet payroll,” Peters said. “It turned out to be 4 percent.”

Other items approved by the committee:

The Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and Personnel Committee appointed Brian Hemphill as the vice president for Student Affairs. The BOT will also vote on the approval at its next meeting.

The Fiscal Year 2006 appropriated capital budget – which is money received from the state for building and infrastructure improvements – was also sent to the full BOT.

Peters told the committee that Illinois is about a year behind from even looking at the appropriations lists sent by state universities.

“We really have not received any fiscal appropriations in the last three years,” said Bob Albanese, associate vice president of Finance and Facilities.

Funding for remodeling of the Stevens Building, a new computer science and technology center and renovation of Wirtz Hall were included in the appropriated budget.

“The Stevens Building has been an issue since 1996,” trustee Myron Siegel said. “It is the fault of the IBHE for not listening to us on these appropriations. The Board of Education has not done their job.”

The FY06 nonappropriated capital budget was also approved by the committee for full-board consideration. The nonappropriated capital budget is supported by student fees and has previously been allocated for improvements.

Among other projects, nonappropriated money will remodel the Huskie Stadium concession areas and creating a tutoring center in Grant Towers.