BATON ROUGE, La. — Raises may be forthcoming for hundreds of Southern University employees from New Orleans to Shreveport if campus leaders can make a convincing case to Southern’s Board of Supervisors.
The board on Friday is set to consider across-the-board salary increases of up to 4 percent for faculty and staff at Southern’s law school, agricultural center and New Orleans campus. Also proposed is a possible pay bump for select workers on Southern’s Shreveport campus.
So far, according to The Advocate, there is nothing in the works for Southern’s main Baton Rouge campus, but Southern System President Ronald Mason said that could change soon.
Louisiana’s four college systems are scheduled to discuss their budgeting moves with the legislature later this month. Pay increases at Southern would be significant because its flagship campus in Baton Rouge only recently emerged from a declaration of financial emergency that allowed the school to downsize faculty and consolidate programs.
More than $700 million in budget cuts to higher education since 2008 have had most campus leaders around Louisiana talking about doing more with less.
But, just a few weeks after LSU System President King Alexander announced pay increases for LSU employees, Southern board members are about to consider making a parallel move.
