BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Southern employees working in the system office and on the Baton Rouge and Shreveport campuses will receive an extra $1,000 in their November paychecks.

The single supplemental payment comes at a time when Southern administrators say they've turned a corner after weathering five straight years of state budget cuts.

Southern University President Ronald Mason tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/191QqAX) the pay hikes are part of a plan to stabilize and rebuild the Southern brand.

Following a rare Saturday meeting of Southern's Board of Supervisors, Mason said he hopes the salary increases and supplemental pay will boost morale on all of Southern's campuses.

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