Good times never last.
About 900 faculty members were pleasantly surprised on payday last Thursday when they were paid 44 percent more than usual.
Soon afterward, they were told by the payroll office that it was a mistake and the balance would be subtracted from their Feb. 6 paychecks.
“It had never happened before. It was an anomaly and was caught before payday occurred,” said Vickie Parker, payroll manager.
The next day, Jan. 23, an e mail was sent to every department’s payroll reporter explaining the problem.
“A combination of processes and programs associated with closing out the old calendar year and beginning the new calendar year generated this error,” the e-mail explained.
Usually, when mistakes occur in payroll, it’s due to human error.
People are often underpaid when such errors occur, Parker said.
This was a unique problem that had never happened before and should not happen again, she said.
Most faculty said they didn’t mind the mistake but were worried about repercussions with taxes.
The e-mail sent by payroll said, “The net effect of your federal/state tax withholding between the two paychecks (Jan. 22 and Feb. 6) may result in a slightly different overall total amount being withheld.”
Leslie Francis, chairperson of the department of philosophy, said that worries her.
“It will all get sorted out at tax time, but that’s a year away,” she said.
Mark Bell, professor of French, said he thinks it will probably balance out in the end and not be a problem, but it does have him a bit worried.
Several department payroll reporters said they were grateful for how quickly the office notified them.
“It really helped that they called. They made every effort to inform people,” said Lynda Roberts, officer coordinator for the department of political science.
“They were pretty on top of the problem,” she said.
