ISU administrators will submit their fiscal year 2005 budget, which outlines plans for improved faculty benefits and reductions in other university resources, for final approval this week at the Board of Regents meeting in Okoboji.

Drafted in a year in which state appropriations match those given to the university in 1998, school officials have adjusted for cuts in order to allow for increases in the school’s operating costs.

The budget allows for an increase of $8.5 million for salary compensation increases, an area which school officials say has been neglected in recent years.

The increases, which will pay for salary increases. Increases in insurance costs and other benefits, will be funded through internal cuts, including a reduction of teaching positions and a 2 percent general cut across every university department.

University officials will also be cutting classes from the university’s catalog in order to find money for expenditure increases.

A list created by the American Association of University Professors comparing average faculty salaries among peer universities ranks Iowa State last in the University Aggregate rankings, with an average salary of $75,000.

The list is topped by the University of California-Davis, with $90,300.

“It’s the second year that the state of Iowa has not provided for any compensation for employees, so it’s rather unusual, and a pattern that we hope does not continue,” said Mark Chidister, assistant to the president for budget planning and analysis.