President Richard Brodhead says Duke University will end its salary freeze. In 2009, the school froze wages and made cuts to deal with a shrinking endowment.
In the fall, Duke got some good news - its $5 billion endowment had bounced back with a 13 percent return. That led to the announcement last week that the salary freeze was over. Now, individual department heads can return to merit-based salary increases that could be as high as three percent. Kyle Cavanugh is Vice President for Human Resources at Duke. He says strategic cuts helped steer Duke through the recession. Duke cut about 350 jobs through retirements and by eliminating open positions:
"I think the navigation through this has been superb and certainly now we’re thrilled to be in a position to return to a merit-based program."
UNC system schools have not fared as well. They are preparing for 15-percent cuts this year, but even that might be low. Some legislators have said that cuts could go as high as 20 or even 30 percent. Raises at Duke will go into effect on July first.