UNI Legislative Update
The Office of Governmental Relations provides legislative updates to the campus community through online communication and bimonthly campus presentations. These updates will inform faculty, staff and students of hot topics facing the legislature and legislative actions affecting UNI and the Regents institutions.
April 25, 2008
Why the salary bill is the most important
The salary increases that UNI is required to pay its employees is the single most influential variable when figuring tuition. If the state appropriates the money to cover their employees-- tuition increases stay low. If the state does not adequately appropriate money for salaries-- tuition increases are higher. For every $1 that tuition brings in to the university, 75 cents of that dollar goes toward salaries of faculty and staff.
Receiving adequate funding from the salary bill helps keep the quality of education in classroom at the level UNI expects not to mention retaining our most top-notch faculty on staff.
To illustrate the point of the direct correlation between the salary bill and tuition consider this: from the 2000-01 through 2005-06 academic year salary increases at state universities was not funded by the legislature...AT ALL! The result? Tuition increased over 75% on UNI's campus. During the 2007 session, the legislature did fund the salary needs of the universities and the result was a tuition increase of only 3.2 percent, the smallest tuition increase in 27 years!