Western Illinois University’s president has an updated contract in place.
Dr. Guiyou Huang’s agreement with the Board of Trustees runs through June 30, 2025. His annual salary is $320,000 -- the same as when he took the job nearly three years ago.
The BoT approved the contract unanimously, and Huang thanked trustees for their confidence in him.
“I will continue to work hard to turn the university around,” he said.
“I need your continued support and guidance. I need faculty, students, and staff to be on board with me to make this university financially more sustainable and make this institution even greater in the years to come.”
Before voting on the contract, the board reviewed its evaluation of Huang’s performance. The evaluation included input from various campus constituencies.
Employee groups generally think he’s doing a good job promoting the university and is showing leadership on issues of diversity.
The president’s lowest scores varied among different groups. For example, faculty gave him low marks for allocating resources for research missions, while the Council of Administrative Personnel gave low marks to the administrative team he has assembled.
According to the review, students would like to see continued attention paid to improving diversity among the faculty.
New contracts for other employees too
The Board of Trustees also approved contracts with half-a-dozen employee groups.
Those include faculty members, whose three-year contract provides a $3,600 increase to the base salary for this year and a three-percent pay hike for each of the next two years.
Others with new contracts are clerical workers, building services employees, campus police, landscape maintenance workers, and mechanical maintenance and heating plant employees.
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