Dear Campus Community:

I am pleased to inform you that on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, the Middle Tennessee State University Board of Trustees held its quarterly meeting in the Miller Education Center.  At that meeting, the Board took formal action on my recommendation to approve a one-time bonus equivalent to six months of a 2% salary increase or $500, whichever is greater, for MTSU employees.  The one-time bonus will be distributed to all unrestricted and restricted regular full-time and part-time benefit eligible employees and participants in the post-retirement service program on the payroll as of December 31, 2020 and in an active pay status on June 1, 2021.  Calculations will be based on an employee’s annual salary as of May 31, 2021 and paid in the June 2021 payroll. 

As an illustration of the calculation, assume Employee A makes $55,000 annually. Two percent (2%) of the annual salary would equate to $1,100.00.  Six months of this annual amount would be $550.00.  Since this amount is greater than $500.00, Employee A would receive a one-time payment of $550.

The minimum payment will be prorated for part-time employees.   Increases for grant employees are part of the salary adjustments and their increases will be charged to the appropriate grant; and increases for auxiliary employees will be funded from auxiliary revenues.  Due to limited funds available, these one-time bonus payments will not apply to temporary employees, graduate assistants, or student workers.  It is my sincere hope that as resources become available, we will be in a position to address these very important groups of employees.

As you will recall, the Governor’s Budget included partial funding for recurring salary increases in the upcoming fiscal year.   I will be making recommendations to our Board of Trustees at the August 2021 Finance and Personnel Committee meeting on the distribution and funding for this salary pool.

In other business, Trustees approved the University’s final 2020-21 and upcoming 2021-22 operating budgets as well as increasing tuition and mandatory fees for the 2021-22 academic year by 1.78% percent. 

Please know how much I value each of you and appreciate your good work.  I am grateful that we are able again to give a one-time bonus to our employees for the hard work this past year.

Sincerely,
Sidney A. McPhee
President
Sidney.McPhee@mtsu.edu