To compensate for increases in health care cost and the lack of a pay raise, the president’s office will give a one-time bonus for faculty members.

Because of the lack of funding from the state, salaries of faculty and staff were frozen. Health care costs went up because of a projected $3 million increase from 2012 to 2013.

“Normally people would get raises on July 1 of this year, but we were not able to give a July 1 increase,” Human Resources Director Donna Evinger said.

Faculty members were sent an email from the president’s office stating Dec. 7 will be a special pay date. Full-time faculty members will receive $750 and part-time employees will receive $500 or $150 -depending on their work load – as a one-time supplement.

The one-time bonus will not be given to deans, vice presidents or the president.

“It’s not a raise,” Evinger said. “It’s a one-time payment, so it’s easier for the university to come up with the money because it isn’t permanently added to the budget,” Evinger said.

The university will spend an estimated $750,000 from its operation budget for the one-time bonus, she said.

The email was sent a few weeks after faculty and staff found out about the change in health care costs.

Faculty and staff members will see anywhere between a 9 to 74 percent increase in their health care cost each month, depending on which of the three health care plans they are on.

Those cost increases do not include the dental cost that was part of last year’s medical coverage, Evinger said.

“I conducted 15 meetings (to discuss health care),” Evinger said. “It was pretty challenging and people took it hard.”

With no raises and expenses going up, “it’s a pay cut,” she said.

Vice President of Business and Finance Mark Rozewski said this is the second time in four years that raises were not given.

Tuition funds the ongoing permanent budget operations, he said.

“The fact that we are the most affordable school in Indiana – and it’s always going to be that – drives everything we do,” Rozewski said. “If we didn’t care about that, we’d just give everybody a raise because we could just raise tuition.”

This means the faculty and staff are the people who make USI the most affordable school in Indiana, he said.

“(The one-time bonus will come) just around Christmas time so we can help with what we know is a struggle over the past two or three years, with not getting salary increases,” Rozewski said. “It’s not the same as a permanent increase to salary.”

He said they looked into having a one-time bonus around May.

“We got a new sense of urgency about it when we saw what was going on with the health insurance,” he said. “That was a serious burden to ask faculty and staff to bear, but … it’s not controllable by anybody.”

Rozewski said the $750 bonus will be less than $500 after taxes.

“There has never been a bonus in the history of the university,” he said.

Rozewski was not sure if the frozen pay raises will continue onto next year because it depends on the upcoming legislative sessions in January, he said.

“It’s too early to tell what kind of state funding we’ll receive this year, and it’s too early to tell what tuition will be the following year,” he said.

USI President Linda Bennett said she plans to tell the “story” about the way USI is funded to legislation in January.

“To say that given the way we are funded, we are the only public university unable to offer a salary increase this year – that’s just wrong,” Bennett said. “We need more operating funds.”

She said she wasn’t sure if the university could do one-time bonuses.

“We were confronted with a sharp increase in health care costs,” she said. “It still meant individuals had to pay a much higher premium.”

Bennett said the administration understood the challenges.

“You have gas prices over $3 … You’ve got the food costs that we have and then you add health care costs,” Bennett said. “The administration team felt so strongly that it was just too tough to turn to people with such a sharp increase in health costs, and the economy, and not try to do something, even if it was a one-time amount.”

Psychology Assistant Professor Amie McKibban said she believes the increase in health care costs will have a negative impact on the faculty and staff and will make some of them re-evaluate their montly budget. 

“It’s a difficult position for faculty and staff to be in, especially around the holidays,” McKibban said.

She said the one-time bonus will help, but not everyone is going to receive it. 

“(The bonus) will help costs for a month, but beyond that month, it’s a one-time bonus,” McKibban said. “It’s not a lot. We’re not going to see this great, big increase in our salaries or paycheck. Something is better than nothing.”