At the June 2025 Quarterly Board of Regents meeting, the Board voted to suspend the merit pay policy for the next biennium. Citing the continued cost of funding the historic COLAs awarded the previous biennium, institutional budget officers noted continued inability to address ongoing budget deficits and therefore inability to budget for merit increases with current revenue projections. NSHE noted that even with the one-shot state appropriations, this bridge funding would not be included in any increased state operating base budgets going forward. NSHE Chris Viton noted that all the institution budget officers were in agreement and had already agreed to this proposal before the NSHE Legislative Budget close. No institution President commented one way or the other about this agenda item. Similarly, this agenda item was not mentioned in the Chair of the Senate Chairs Council report.

NFA gave comment in the meeting that institutions should have come forward sooner to ask for suspension of the policy if they did not believe they had the budget for it; we pointed out that it was clear institutions made no effort to prioritize merit in their biennial budget planning (a point that Board Chair Carvalho underscored). There was some movement from Regents to look at this issue in case funding might allow for merit in fiscal year 2027, but without increases in student fees or some other revenue stream, faculty compensation might yet be left at the bottom of the priorities list.

NFA reminded the Regents that issues such as merit is not simply because faculty "deserve" it. As state employees, we see our pay decreased, benefits reduced, and benefits in retirement taken away to balance the state budget. Without advocating for our salary, we cannot plan for our futures.