IU President Michael McRobbie will receive a salary of $533,120 for the 2011-12 school year, according to the University’s annual salary report.

The new amount is a 12 percent increase over the $476,000 McRobbie made last year.

“This puts him right in the middle of the Big Ten as far as president’s salaries go,” IU spokesman Mark Land said.

IU faculty and staff will also see a pay raise this upcoming year, albeit one of only 1.5 to 3 percent. The IU Board of Trustees approved the raise, which is to be merit-based, in June.

A month earlier, the trustees approved a 5.5 percent raise in tuition and fees for resident students at IU Bloomington, as well as a 6.7 percent raise for nonresident students. Tuition also increased at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis and across IU’s regional campuses. This will result in an allotted $12.9 million for maintenance and improvement projects on all IU campuses, the trustees said.

IU has a current maintenance backlog of more than $600 million.

News of the raise has not gone without criticism.

The local chapter of Communication Workers of America, which represents 1,700 support staff at IU Bloomington and IU Northwest, called the increase “frustrating.”

Chapter President Bryce Smedley said the 1.5 percent raise the support staff is earning does not match inflation, and some staff members are having trouble paying the bills. Others, he said, are even facing layoffs.

“We were told there’s no money, that this is not the time for raises,” Smedley said. “It was a hard pill to swallow, but we made that sacrifice. So to hear this is upsetting.”
Smedley said McRobbie should stand in solidarity with his employees.

“If we are to sacrifice as a team and as a community, we need leaders that lead by example,” he said.

Read the rest of this story at the Indiana Daily Student.