A draft budget planning document that showed no across-the-board base salary raise for faculty and staff was inadvertently posted online by a staff member on Monday.
The correct budget was posted Thursday. It included a 2% base salary increase for continuing faculty and staff in fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1 this year, with some exceptions. The base salary increase is subject to the Board of Trustees' approval at their June meeting.
Indiana University spokesperson Mark Bode said in an email the document was taken down after the error was discovered.
The 2024-25 policy was to approve a 3% maximum salary pool increase. A salary pool is a predetermined increase allotted to faculty and staff that can be divided up between salaries. In 2024-2025, the minimum salary increase was 1%.
In 2022-2023, there was a mandatory increase of 2%. Since 2017, the only time there wasn’t a salary increase was during fiscal year 2021 when the policy was revised after the pandemic shutdowns. The following year, there was a mandatory increase in salaries of 1% and an average base salary increase pool of up to 2%.
The incorrect document, which is now unavailable online, was posted in a Bloomingtonian article on Tuesday. The document contained a misspelling in the name of the budget office.
Benjamin Robinson, an associate professor of Germanic studies, said Wednesday the document being put up and taken down had been a source of confusion for faculty.
“More and more people are aware of this, but there’s still no clarity,” Robinson said Wednesday, before knowing of the increase. “No one is being told.”
Bode said the university was awaiting additional information regarding state and federal funds, which could make room for merit-based salary increases.
