Southeastern announces raises for faculty, staff
Monday, August 14, 2017
by: Rene Abadie
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University will provide merit raises for its faculty
and staff for the first time since the 2009-10 state fiscal year, university President
John L. Crain said Friday (Aug. 11).
In a state-of-the-university address at its annual faculty-staff convocation,
Crain said approximately $3 million in the current budget will be allocated to fund
the raise plan, which applies to all full-time faculty and staff employed as of June
30. The total raise pool will be approximately 5.25 percent of the current salary
base. Individual faculty and unclassified staff raises may be more or less than this
amount as recommended by the supervisor, and will vary based on the amount of the
departmental raise pool, each employee’s prior years’ merit evaluations, and other
relevant factors.
Southeastern has approximately 1,100 faculty and staff.
“While the overarching goal of the raise plan is to be as fair and equitable
as possible, attempting to compensate for multiple years of foregone merit raises
is necessarily complicated and difficult, given our finite resources,” he said.
Classified staff at Southeastern will receive raises in accordance with Louisiana
Civil Service rules. In addition to the general increase for classified staff approved
as part of the recent legislative session, we will elect to implement some of the
merit step increases that were foregone as a result of prior layoff avoidance plans,
such that the overall average pay raise rate for classified staff is approximately
equivalent to the average pay raise rate for unclassified employees.
Crain said all raise recommendations will be reviewed by the administration prior
to submission to the Board of Supervisors for final approval. Once approved, the raises
will be effective retroactively to July 1.
He said the faculty and staff are among Southeastern’s greatest assets, and the
raises reflect an investment in the continued success of the institution.
“I wish the raise amounts were greater, given the long dry spell without pay
raises,” he added. “However, I am very happy to be communicating with the campus community
about pay raises rather than budget cuts as so often has been the case in recent years.”
