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Monday, March 28, 2016
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Professor finds pay inequality Study leads to NIU salary task force Julia Martinez Staff writer
DeKalb | NIU plans to implement a salary equity task force after concerns were voiced of a gender-based pay discrepancy of potentially up to $8,000. These concerns were made known by biological sciences professor Virginia Naples who has researched faculty salary inequalities for more than 20 years and has 12 years of data which she derived from NIU working papers and the Illinois Board of Higher Education website. Naples said female professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are earning $8,000 less than male professors, according to her research. For female assistant professors, the difference is potentially about $1,000 and for associate professors the difference is potentially $2,000.
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[We check for salary equity] typically through an outside examination firm, that is expensive. We could do an inside examination, but the concern is that we’re just still waiting on funding from the state so money is very tight.” Alan Phillips Vice president of administration and finance
NIU is holding off on hiring an outside firm to check salary equity because the state budget impasse makes about 20 percent of NIU’s budget uncertain, said Alan Phillips, vice president of administration and finance. The budget impasse is due to a lack of agreement between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state legislature on a Fiscal Year 2016 budget. Without a finalized budget, appropriations for things such as higher education cannot be given. Illinois is the only state without a budget for FY 16. “[We check for salary equity] typically through an outside examination firm, that is expensive,”
Man did not kill Ridulph: Schmack Northern Star staff
Xavier Ortega | Northern Star
Virginia Naples, a professor of 32 years in the biological studies department, takes a break from her ongoing research on gender pay inequality at NIU. She has been studying gender pay inequality for more than 20 years.
Phillips said. “We could do an inside examination, but the concern is that we’re just still waiting on funding from the state so money is very tight.” Naples said she did not account for staff salaries when researching salary inequality. “I’m not ignoring the staff, I just don’t know how to compare that data,” Naples said. “I don’t personally understand how the staff salary ranking ought to be done, but I do know from speaking with many other staff, their salaries are atrociously low.” Naples presented her data to Phillips in December, at which Phillips said faculty salaries studies were conducted in 2008 and 2011 that determined there were no salary equity issues.
“We focus greatly on equity and it’s something we address every day,” Phillips said. “It’s certainly something we are working towards so we don’t have gender issues, and it’s a part of making this campus equal.” Naples said when she presented the issue in 2006 to the Board of Trustees, the members were very alarmed and concerned, but nothing was done. “I intend to go back to the Board of Trustees at the appropriate time... but what I actually have is the smoking gun that beyond the shadow of a doubt proves that there is sex discrimination in salaries at NIU,” Naples said. Faculty Senate President Greg Long said the administration is concerned about faculty compensation.
Virginia Naples’ study Biological sciences professor Virginia Naples has researched faculty salary inequalities for more than 20 years and has 12 years of data. Her findings include: • Female professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are earning $8,000 less than male professors. • For female assistant professors, the difference is potentially about $1,000 and for associate professors the difference is potentially $2,000. “Actions speak louder than words,” Naples said. “I am not satisfied with the [NIU] administration’s response to these salary issues.”
SA Senate nominates 4 speakers Senate meetings
Alexander Chettiath News Editor
DeKalb | The Student Association Senate nominated four senators for the position of SA Senate speaker. The Senate speaker is the head of the Senate which is responsible for allocating the $6.5 million in the SA budget. The budget is used to provide services to students including: the HuskieLine bus system, Campus Recreation, Students’ Legal Assistance, Off-Campus and Non-Traditional Services and Events Production Services, according to its website. The nominees are senators Christine Wang, Demone Williams, Robert Kreml and Giuseppe LaGioia, who were all nominated at the Senate meeting Sunday. Wang, Williams and Kreml all accepted their nominations. LaGioia was not present and unable to accept
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The Student Association Senate meets 5 p.m. Sunday in the Holmes Student Center, Sky Room.
Alexander Chettiath | Northern Star
Freshman marketing major Dylan Tosti speaks during the Student Association Senate meeting Sunday in the Holmes Student Center, Sky Room. Tosti was sworn in as senator at large at the meeting.
his nomination but has until Thursday to accept. LaGioia is currently a candidate for SA president and is in the only contested election. “In the event that either he loses
the election or decides to step out for whatever reason, I wanted to make sure, with him being a relatively highprofile student leader on campus, he still had the opportunity to run,” said Sergeant at Arms Timothy Brandner.
“If he decides to go for speaker and still wins the election for president then he drops out, no big deal.” Voting on the candidates will occur at the SA Senate meeting Sunday. Senator at large Freshman marketing major Dylan Tosti was approved as a senator at large at the meeting. Tosti said he hopes to increase activities on campus to increase retention rates and keep students on campus during weekends.
DeKalb | Richard Schmack, DeKalb County state’s attorney, said Jack D. McCullough, 76, of Seattle, could not have abducted and killed 7-year-old Maria Ridulph in 1957, according to a DeKalb County State’s Attorney Office news release Friday. The state’s attorney’s declaration comes at the conclusion of a six-month, court-ordered investigation with the Illinois State Police. The 55 -ye a r- old case is one of the United States’ longest to Jack D. be solved McCullough cold cases. On September 14, 2012, McCullough was found guilty of murder, kidnapping and abduction of an infant. McCullough’s murder conviction was upheld by the Second District Appellate Court, according to an Illinois State Police news release.
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I truly wish that this crime had really been solved, and her true killer were incarcerated for life. When I began this lengthy review I had expected to find some reliable evidence that the right man had been convicted. No such evidence could be discovered... .” Richard Schmack DeKalb County state’s attorney
Schmack said it was an “impossibility” for McCullough to have been in Sycamore during the time of the crime as he was found to have been making a phone call in downtown Rockford. The shortest distance from Sycamore to downtown Rockford is 35 miles, Schmack said in the news release. “I truly wish that this crime had really been solved, and her true killer were incarcerated for life,” Schmack said, according to the news release. “When I began this lengthy review I had expected to find some reliable evidence that the right man had been convicted. No such evidence could be discovered. Compounding the tragedy by convicting the wrong man, and fighting further in the hopes of keeping him jailed, is not the proper legacy for our community, or for the memory of Maria Ridulph.”
Read more Read more of the Northern Star’s coverage on this case at bit.ly/1pTmrIM.