Many campus-wide University faculty and staff were given their first pay raises after three years of stagnant salaries and mandatory furlough days, some of which left faculty morale low and led some staff to seek employment elsewhere.

However, that is not to say certain staff members went three years without a raise. Nor is it to say that all on campus received a raise this year. Instead, these raises were given to select faculty and staff on an individual basis. On average, these merit-based raises were 3 percent, said Tom Hardy, University spokesman.

While there had not been a general salary program in years, raises were still given to University employees on an individual basis during this time. These included promotions as well as contractual and collective bargaining agreements, Hardy said.

“There are always special actions taken for retention of critical faculty and staff due to market conditions,” he said.

Ginny Hudak-David, University spokeswoman, said in an email that pay raises were a top priority of University President Michael Hogan because the University has not had a University-wide salary program since 2008, when faculty and staff were awarded 1.5 percent raises.

University faculty and staff also took pay decreases in the form of furlough days in Spring 2010. University employees were required to take between four and 10 furlough days, or leaves-of-absence without pay. The furlough days were in response to the state’s inability to send their allotted annual funding, which led to University budget shortfalls as large as $746 million in 2010.

Hogan announced last spring that he planned on implementing a salary program, since there was concern that top faculty members might leave for outside offers.

Other top administrators have expressed concerns similar to Hogan’s. In an interview with The Daily Illini Editorial Board, Chancellor and Vice President Phyllis Wise said she had not heard that a lack of pay raises led to low faculty morale, but that retaining faculty and staff in the face of declining state funding were a priority of hers. Wise began her tenure on Oct. 1, so she was not involved in the decision to raise salaries for this year.

In 2009-2010, 25 University faculty members left for institutions that offered an average of $60,000 more in salary, according to an Aug. 25 article of The Daily Illini.

“The leadership of the University felt it was necessary to have a modest program to show that the U of I will be competitive in the market for the best faculty and staff,” Hardy said.

Savings generated through administrative streamlining and other cost-cutting measures helped fund the pay raises this year, Hudak-David said.