Colleagues:

Although the state budget for the coming academic year will not become official until the Board of Regents approves it on July 18, 2003 I wish to announce how the University and the College intend to handle merit salary increases for faculty and professional staff.

Faculty

Present plans call for a 2% salary increase to be awarded to all faculty judged to be meritorious. This will be handled as either a 0% merit increase for those judged to be non-meritorious or 2% for those judged to be meritorious as stated above. There are no funds for additional faculty salary merit this year. The College will not retain unused state salary increase funds for those faculty judged to be non-meritorious unless the funds are used for a retention situation. It is our understanding that salary increases will not take effect until August 1, 2003 at the earliest. All faculty, regardless of source of funding, are subject to these procedures. Non-state funded faculty must ensure that their funding sources are sufficient to cover all salary increases. Division Chairs have forwarded merit increases to the Dean for approval.

Professional Staff

The CFR policy for merit salary increases for professional staff was distributed on February 11, 2003 and remains operative (http://faculty.washington.edu/bare/staffsal.html). Like the faculty, present plans call for a 2% salary increase to be awarded to all professional staff judged to be meritorious. Only professional staff who have been permanently employed by the College for at least six months and who have not had a salary increase take effect within the last six months (after January 1, 2003), will be eligible for this raise. This will be handled as either a 0% merit increase for those judged to be non-meritorious or 2% for those judged to be meritorious following the faculty merit raise policy above. The College will retain unused salary increase funds for those professional staff judged to be non-meritorious. These funds may be used for retention situations or additional merit for those judged to be highly meritorious. Salary increases will not take effect until August 1, 2003 at the earliest. All professional staff, regardless of source of funding, are subject to these procedures. Non-state funded professional staff must ensure that their funding sources are sufficient to cover all salary increases. Exceptions to this policy are spelled out on the web site referenced above.

Supervisors should forward a paragraph supporting recommended merit allocations for each professional staff employee supervised to Karen Russell by June 25, 2003, for the Dean's approval. Recommendations for increases in excess of 2% must be justified and documented as specified in the Professional Staff Salary Increase Policy at the web site above, and accompanied by a specific budget source under the supervisor's control in the event that merit pool money is not available.

Librarians, TAs, and RAs will also receive a 2% salary adjustment for the next academic year. However, the state budget for the next academic year does not permit a merit salary increase for our classified staff. Apparently, there is nothing that we can do about this unfortunate situation until the Legislature takes action.