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Campuses:
April 21, 2009
To: Chancellors, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Vice Provosts, and Twin Cities Campus Deans
From: E. Thomas Sullivan, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Julius E. Davis Chair in Law; Carol Carrier, Vice President for Human Resources
Subject: Principles and salary adjustments for faculty (94xx) not covered by collective bargaining agreements, academic professional and administrative staff (97xx, 96xx, 93xx) and graduate assistants and other 95xx student employees
Although final budget numbers will not be available until the 2009 Minnesota State Legislature draws its session to a close, the approaching end of the academic and fiscal years makes it imperative that we communicate to each of you the compensation strategy for fiscal year 2009-10 that will be recommended to the Board of Regents. Final approval of the compensation plan must be approved by the Board of Regents. The budget is expected to be acted upon by the Board of Regents at a meeting in June, after public forums have been held on the topic by the Board.
This memorandum applies to:
Funds will not be available for compensation increases, except in the circumstances noted below. These exceptions include promotions in rank or academic classification, approved retention offers, increases associated with existing university-wide or campus programs, clinical compensation, and approved discretionary increases or awards
Regrettably, our 2009-10 financial situation will not permit recurring merit-related base salary increases for those faculty and academic professional and administrative staff who continue in their current faculty rank or academic classification. No general compensation increase pool will be made available by either the central level or unit level to fund merit increases to base salaries of academic employees. Neither sponsored funds nor any restricted or unrestricted non-sponsored funds can be used to provide recurring merit increases for those whose base salaries are supported in whole or in part by these funds.
In no case shall the increase to base salary for those receiving promotions and or tenure be less than the amounts shown below:
Awarding of promotion for regular faculty: Standard recurring increases for promotion and/or tenure to be added to the annual base salary are the following:
Note: Rates are adjusted annually to reflect inflation using the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI).
Awarding of promotion for contract faculty (i.e., appointment types F,T,A,U,D,I): units may, at their discretion, award promotional increases in accord with past practice in the respective units provided that such increases do not exceed those proposed above for regular faculty in the unit.
In no case shall the recurring increase to base salary for those receiving promotions and or continuous appointment be less than the amounts shown below:
The approval of the appropriate chancellor, vice president, or senior vice president is required when making retention offers. In addition, notification of a retention offer must be provided to the Office of Human Resources if it involves an increase in salary. Units are responsible for funding retention offers; no central funds will be available for this purpose.
Programs such as the Morse Alumni Teaching award program that provide additional pay for recipients will continue without change. Other incentive programs will require approval as outlined in the section on discretionary increases as outlined below.
This memorandum does not apply to compensation for clinical practice services when conducted by faculty within an approved faculty practice plan and when funded from clinical practice revenue. Such payments are funded by clinical revenues, are not considered part of the base salary, and are not guaranteed under the tenure policy.
The categories described above represent the narrow range of situations where increases may be granted during 2009-2010. Any established campus, college or unit-based programs that in the past have delivered special merit awards (either in a lump sum form or in a recurring form to base salaries) to either individual employees or categories of employees will require special approval in order to be administered during the 2009-2010 year. The approval must come from the appropriate senior vice president, chancellor or vice president. This approval, which must be in writing and include a summary of the program details, shall be provided to the Office of Human Resources prior to implementation. This additional level of approval will discourage attempts to bypass the University's difficult decision to not provide salary increases this year. This oversight and approval procedure will help ensure that the University's goals for this year are achieved in a manner that is as equitable as possible.
No merit increases for graduate assistants and other 95XX classes are permissible. Units that have established promotional criteria and increases associated with such criteria for their graduate and professional training programs, may continue to follow these procedures.
University policy requires annual performance evaluations of all academic personnel as the means of regularly assessing performance. While it is understandably frustrating to conduct such reviews in the absence of resources for merit increases, such reviews continue to be important in providing faculty and staff with timely and clear feedback and in reassuring highly productive staff that their contributions are both recognized and documented.
As a reminder, supervisory and administrative staff have special responsibilities for implementing our equal opportunity commitment in all aspects of the work environment, including the evaluation of personnel performance.
Because no compensation pool will be available from either central or unit level resources for fiscal year 2009-10, no unit compensation plan is required to be submitted for review or approval.
Questions related to this academic compensation memo can be answered by the Office of Human Resources at 612-624-9817 or 612-624-6556.
Salary floors for academic employees for 2009-10 have not been increased. Note that these floors are most particularly relevant to newly hired academic employees.
Office of Human Resources
100 Donhowe Building, 319 15th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455