After the Board of Trustees’ approval last month of the “3-percent plus” plan to increase eligible faculty salaries, NIU is shifting funds to account for the change.

In order to stay competitive, faculty salaries increased 1.5 percent on July 1 and another 1.5 percent increase on Jan. 1. The “plus” part of the increase is a commitment that if the financial environment of the state and the university are stabilized, more increases are going to be made.

“The state of Illinois gave NIU no new money, therefore the university will use every means possible to generate funds, through internal reallocation of funds and savings generated through utilities, wherever we can find added revenues,” said Eddie Williams, executive vice president and chief of operations of finance and facilities.

What effect this salary increase will have on the NIU students has yet to be seen.

“[President Peters’] main priorities are to support and maintain academic programs and to downsize through a managed reduction, in terms of generating savings and minimizing the effect on students,” Williams said.

Efforts are being made this summer and in the fall semester to generate funds for the faculty salary increase.

“These measures include the four-day work week in the summer, closing buildings earlier in the day, and not filling [faculty and staff] positions as they become vacant,” Williams said. “All these efforts contribute to the availability of resources that meet the required amount of increase.”

Increases in tuition and the freshman enrollment for the fall semester are also contributing factors to the salary increase, Williams said.

“There are a lot of different strategic priorities that relate to the performance of the university as an organization in terms of the quality and competitiveness of NIU,” said Steve Cunningham, associate vice president of enterprise planning and human resources. “The single biggest factor is how competitive compensation for the faculty and staff is.”

One of the main reasons for the salary increase is the ever-growing cost of living in DeKalb.

“In a region that’s rapidly growing, the costs of living are somewhat greater than other universities in the state, such as Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois,” Cunningham said. “NIU is at the same scope as SIU and UIUC in regard to its academic programming so NIU has to maintain a high quality faculty in a competitive regional environment.”