Board of Trustees approve pay raise for Ohio University Staff

On Nov. 1 the Board of Trustees announced that  all Ohio University's staff will receive a 1 percent pay raise.

The Board of Trustees increased the merit pool by 1 percent, which results in a direct increase in staff (including President Roderick McDavis and Mrs. McDavis’) salaries.

According to a press release on Ohio University's website, there has been a 19 percent increase in applications making the freshman class of 2017 larger than years prior. There are 4,249 new students on campus, and their tuition money was used for an increase in staff salary.

“Last spring, the Budget Planning Council prioritized an additional one percent salary pool increase for faculty should we meet our enrollment targets for the 2013 Fall semester,” President McDavis wrote in a letter to the staff.

McDavis goes on in the letter to say, “We have now exceeded those targets, and as a result, preliminary information indicates that this year's freshmen class is Ohio University's largest, most diverse, and academically qualified class in the history of our institution!”

According to the vice president of Finance and Administration and Board of Trustees member, Stephen Golding, “The additional 1 percent was recognition of the tremendous work our faculty and staff and the fact that our compensation levels are below a number of our peer institutions within the state of Ohio.”

Golding also noted that the university made the additional 1 percent increase last August, the board just recently adopted it.

Student trustee, Keith Wilbur, additionally stated, “President McDavis [and staff] does a great job and he deserves to get paid well.”

When asked why there was not an increase in scholarship money Wilbur responded, “I can't discuss on what goes on in executive session, but I would like to emphasize, as trustees we're supposed to look out for the well being of the university. Obviously the board has decided this is what we should do with the increase.”

As student trustee, Wilbur does not have voting rights, but he is able to participate in the discussions that the board has and contributes his opinions in executive session.

More that was discussed in this meeting were the capital improvement plan, guaranteed tuition, accreditation, declaring buildings on East State Street a surplus, and allocation of funds for improvements to the Lausche heating plant

The next meeting for the Board of Trustees is Jan 23-24.