Penn State University might forgo salary increases next year
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Penn State University employees may have to forgo salary increases next year as the school, like colleges nationwide, grapples with the worsening economy, university president Graham Spanier says.
The move, disclosed in a letter to the campus community, would affect about 38,000 non-union full- and part-time employees on the main University Park campus and branches around the state, spokesman Geoff Rushton said yesterday.
Dr. Spanier said Penn State's financial status is sound and that administrators are taking a variety of steps to deal with the recession while minimizing the size of any tuition increase in the fall.
Penn State is feeling the recession's effects in a range of areas, from losses in its endowment value and cuts in its current-year state appropriation to rising costs to operate the campuses and fund employee benefits.
Dr. Spanier said he plans to meet with Gov. Ed Rendell to encourage the state not to impose any more cutbacks in the current-year appropriation. Penn State already expects to return $21.2 million or 6 percent of its appropriation this year so the state can address its own revenue shortfall.
First Published January 9, 2009 12:18 am
