Colleagues

As you know, the University has made limited funds available for each college to address its most pressing faculty salary compression issues. Our College received $16,005. Because we must also pay benefits from this amount, we have $14,015 available for actual distribution.

The Provost has instructed us to use these funds primarily to address salary compression issues among highly meritorious full and associate professors. I wish to use these funds such that we are able to make an appreciable difference in the salary of those selected faculty members with compressed salaries. These funds may not be used to address retention issues. All salary adjustments we make are effective as of September 1, 2005.

Because we expect the Provost to allocate additional funds for this purpose in future years, the process we use this year will set the stage for future compression salary adjustments. Since we will have additional opportunities to address compressed salaries in the College, I believe it is important to address this strategically and in a focused manner.

Merit salary adjustment procedures used in our College have been developed by the faculty, the Faculty PMT Committee, and the EFC. These procedures take into account the cumulative academic record of our faculty and include measures of performance in teaching, research and service. Combined, these measures aid the faculty and administration in assessing the full scholarship of their colleagues. These assessments have been used to assign merit salary adjustments to our faculty when funds are made available to the College.

As stated in Section 24-57 of the UW Handbook, "The University's Salary Policy is founded upon the principle that individual salary decisions must be based on merit as assessed by a performance review conducted by faculty and administrative colleagues. Salary adjustments for performance and retention, as well as salary awards stemming from differential unit performance and marketplace gaps, are based upon a consultative process of faculty and administrative evaluation. Merit/performance evaluations are unit-based and reward the faculty for their contributions to local units as well as to the University's goals."

Following instructions from both the Provost and the Senate Executive Committee, we will use existing annual merit salary assessments and performance reviews conducted during the spring quarters of 2001-2005; the current salary of each faculty member (adjusted to a common nine month basis where necessary); and the time since each faculty member received their Ph.D. - to aid the identification of those faculty eligible for a salary compression adjustment. This process will help us identify highly meritorious faculty with compressed salaries. To make an appreciable impact on their salaries, 3-4 of the faculty with compressed salaries will have their salaries increased using the available compression funds. All state funded faculty are eligible to be considered for this salary adjustment.

In developing this process for our College, I consulted with the EFC. They, in turn, provided me with their comments and suggestions. I also asked our associate deans, chair and vice chair for their input.

To implement the process, I request that the Faculty PMT Committee carry out the process steps identified above. We will provide them with the needed data and they will identify and rank order those faculty eligible for a salary compression adjustment. The PMT Committee will present their recommendations to the Chair and Dean. The Chair will send his recommendations to the Dean who will make the final determination.

I request that the Faculty PMT Committee complete their assignment by February 8. Thank you and best wishes for a great new year.