Rumors of low endowment sparked the belief that employees at Simpson would not be receiving raises this year.

“[It has] been a while since the college didn’t give any raises,” said Bruce Haddox, vice president and dean for academic affairs.

According to Haddox, Simpson’s high enrollment is what allowed the college to give out raises this year.

The high enrollment lead to employee raises, but also boosted Simpson’s endowment.

“The endowment is starting to come back, said Haddox. “When the stock market goes down, the earnings shrink. The endowment itself is not actually used, the earnings are.”

Enrollment increased so much this year that the employees were able to receive higher raises than expected.

“[We] had planned a three percent raise,” said President R. Kevin LaGree. “The cost of living for this part of Iowa was only about two percent higher.”

According to LaGree, A majority of Simpson College’s employees

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received at least a 4 percent raise.

“[This amount is] higher than raises of any

private college our size in Iowa,” he said.

According to LaGree, Simpson determines the amount of raise the employees will receive by comparing with other colleges.

“We compare our salaries across the board with those of Central, Coe, Cornell, Luther and Wartburg,” he said.

“[We then set] our salaries above the midpoint of all of the schools.”

LaGree said that some Simpson College employees were given higher raises based on factors such as performance.

According to LaGree, employees seem “happy” about the raises they received this year.

Haddox said that the average salary of the 84 full-time faculty members is $52,404.

“Our philosophy is that Simpson College is a community that involves everybody. No one is more important than anyone else. When we’re able to give raises, we like to reward everybody,” said Haddox.