This July, faculty and staff will get a raise for the first time in two years.

A plan for faculty and staff retention was included in Western’s updated strategic plan, and it calls for increased compensation.

The budget cuts in recent years have meant that faculty weren’t given salary raises, which led to a situation where Western had a hard time competing in the marketplace, Human Resources Director Tony Glisson said.

“We don’t want to lose good people,” he said.

The 1.5-percent bonus that faculty got in 2009 will be added to their base salary beginning in July, according to the strategic plan.

After the salary increase, improved faculty benefits will be the next priority, Glisson said.

The plan will start moving Western in the direction of being more competitive, he said.

Faculty and staff retention is a natural part of the strategic plan, because it’s always an issue, said Richard Miller, chief diversity officer and associate vice president for Academic Affairs.

If faculty aren’t taken care of, they’ll potentially leave for other universities, Miller said.

There’s always been some faculty mobility, but he hasn’t seen significant numbers of faculty leaving, he said.

Western’s retention rate isn’t out of the ordinary, he said.

“It’s an important issue, but it’s not a critical issue,” Miller said.

He said Western is “absolutely” a competitive market, and applicant pools are very large for positions here.

Faculty Regent Patricia Minter said she’s pleased to see faculty and staff retention emphasized in the strategic plan.

Administrators are right to make faculty compensation a priority, she said.

But salaries for Western faculty have not caught up to the benchmark average, Minter said.

In fiscal year 2008-2009, the average professor salary at Western was about 5 percent less than the professor salary for Western’s 19 benchmark universities, said Mike Dale, assistant vice president for Academic Affairs.

Minter said that although addressing faculty raises and benefits is a necessary step, she doesn’t think it will make the faculty feel better about the raises for two administrators that were passed recently.

“A lot of damage has been done,” Minter said.

Officials recently approved a $9,200 raise for Dean Kahler, vice president for Enrollment Management, and a $34,000 raise for Athletics Director Wood Selig.

Selig’s raise is coming from private donations made to the WKU Foundation that are designated for athletics.