Greetings from Newport:
I’m sending this message to our campus employees just after the approval by the ASU System Board of Trustees of our Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal. As you may have already learned, we received approval for a 3.4 percent increase in tuition and fees for next year, and modest increases to cover rising costs for residential housing and meal plans. I want to express my appreciation to our trustees and President Welch, both for approving our request and for encouraging us to invest in our most precious resource - the members of our A-State faculty and staff. Remember that we did not raise tuition last year, meaning that our average increase over the past two years is 1.7 percent, keeping pace with inflation. Even with this increase, we remain sixth in total cost of attendance among the 10 public four-year universities in Arkansas (and 21st out of 25 public and private four-year schools).
Thanks to the diligent work of our entire Red Wolves family to seek efficiencies in how we operate, A-State is now in a position to offer raises to our full-time, benefited members of the faculty and staff for the upcoming fiscal year.
I’ve said repeatedly that Every Red Wolf Counts – and that includes each of you. It has been some time since a permanent raise was made available for both faculty AND staff.
Your type of position at A-State will define what type of raise you are receiving starting in July. There is new state of Arkansas legislation that will create adjustments to the overall pay plan, the Higher Education Uniform Classification and Compensation Act (HEUCCA). Many of our classified employees will see a significant one-time change to their pay plans as this goes into effect July 1. In addition, classified employees will also receive a two percent cost of living adjustment (COLA).
The request that we presented to the board also included the creation of a merit raise pool for each college or division of the university that equaled three percent of the unit’s current salary base. These raises are for our non-classified employees and our full-time faculty. Each area supervisor will refer back to the evaluations performed in the last cycle to inform their area’s allocation of the three percent pool.
Since your first question may be what my salary is for the upcoming fiscal year, we have placed the newly approved A-State budget book online. If you have questions, please direct them first to your college or division leadership, and then to our HR department if they cannot assist.
In closing, I want to thank you for the work you have done in service of our students at Arkansas State University. Imagine what we will do together in the upcoming academic year.
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