Although on-campus student employees are getting a raise, university departments that pay students are not.
Vice President of Student Affairs Doug McConkey said departments that employ students would not be receiving any extra money in their budgets to help make up for the increased university minimum wage.
"Departments will have to stick to the budgets they have," McConkey said.
The university decided not to increase department budgets because of tight university funding caused by cuts from the state, McConkey said.
"Campus supervisors must determine the best use for student wage dollars that are available under the existing budget structure," said a Web site explaining the wage increase to faculty members.
Departments had to submit their budgets to the university by June 30.
The increased minimum wage on campus took effect Thursday, raising the per-hour pay from $5.15 to $5.50. Additionally, some campus jobs could pay up to $7.50 depending on if the job required any special skills or abilities, such as computer programming.
University departments would be left in charge of deciding how much a student gets paid over minimum wage.
But university departments will not get any extra money to cover the new minimum wage or higher pay.
"It will be a problem for some departments," McConkey said.
Smaller departments could particularly be affected, he said.
McConkey did offer a solution to any departments that might run into budget problems. He said those departments could talk with their college deans or vice presidents, who could make necessary funding changes.
"Vice presidents, deans, directors will have latitude to reallocate money from one area to another," McConkey said.
Despite funding cuts from the state, the university decided to increase minimum wage on campus because it also increased tuition.
"We had to make the decision that it was necessary and the right thing to do to increase student wages since tuition is going up," McConkey said.
The Board of Trustees took action on the new student wage rate at their May 3 meeting. This was the same meeting the board approved tuition rates for the upcoming school year.
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