MADISON, Wis. -- University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly on Friday announced his recommendation for 2.5 percent annual pay raises for academic faculty and staff, but many professors said that increase falls too short.

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Bill Tracy, a professor and chair of the UW-Madison Department of Agronomy, is active in university professor pay issues through the Faculty Senate.

"While (I'm) disappointed, I certainly wouldn't say this (news) is unexpected," Tracy said.

For more than 20 years at UW-Madison, Tracy has grown his department and his chosen research field: crops and sweet corn.

As a department chair, his salary is about $130,000. But he said most of his other department staff does not have a large salary. In fact, only one other person there makes more than $100,000. Most, he said, make far below that.

The problem, Tracy said, is that pay for professors at UW-Madison is 10 percent less than its peer group of about a dozen competing universities. And he said that makes recruiting top-notch people very challenging.

"We just recruited somebody from Purdue recently, and that person was making almost as much as most of our full professors here -- and he was an assistant professor at Purdue," Tracy said.

But the pay gap might not be closed any time soon.

Next week, Reilly will go to the Board of Regents and propose 2.5 percent annual pay hikes for UW System academic faculty and staff.

That's less than half of what the regents have supported. In 2006, the regents backed 5.23 percent raises for four years straight, starting in 2007.

But Reilly said that in light of tough economic times in the state, the new proposal is "a responsible plan and one that will have a minimal impact on tuition."

"We expect that our financial aid offices are going to be very busy this fall with students who are either in need of more financial aid than they were previously given, or who, for the first time, are eligible for financial aid. And we're trying to demonstrate we're sensitive to their situation," said David Giroux, head of communications for the UW System.

But Tracy said higher pay for academic staff would bring benefits like graduate students who start hi-tech businesses and grow jobs and federal research dollars.

But some Republican lawmakers who've been critical of the UW System pay hikes in the past said they aren't too sympathetic.

"Even 2.5 percent is too high," said West Bend State Sen. Glenn Grothman. "Everybody should be at zero. A year from now, maybe we can up it."

He added, "In my district, people are losing their jobs. Anybody who's got a job and isn't getting cut has nothing to complain about."

The state Legislature this current two-year cycle approved academic raises of 2 percent the first year and 3 percent the second.

The Board of Regents meets late next week. It will forward its pay plan to the governor.

Pay raises are covered by tuition and/or general purpose state tax dollars and are separate from the UW System agency budget request.