JSU Trustees approve budget, includes employee pay raises

Jacksonville State University’s Board of Trustees on Monday committed to giving employees a raise next year, if the university can afford it.

During a quarterly meeting trustees approved a lean $112.6 million budget for the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. The spending plan sees the university operating under a virtual hiring freeze, a 5 percent cut to all departments, and the transfer of more than $1 million from a student scholarship account.  The board in July planned to give employees a 2 percent raise in 2016 and will hold to that plan, provided JSU can foot the bill for the raise by April.

If given, the raise would be the third that university employees have received since 2013.