In July 2009, the University of Illinois launched a salary freeze for administrators, faculty and other academic professionals without considering how much a person earns in a year, or whether the salary is from the university or external funding or grants. More than 65 administratives in the University of Illinois each make $200,000 to more than $450,000 annually. Since they make big sum of money in a year, the freezing doesn't hurt them at all. The university president at Urbana makes $450,000.

Those individuals earn more than $15 million annually, or 2.5 percent of the salary budget for the University’s employees.