Message from the President and Interim Provost
August 27, 2021
Dear Colleagues:
As communicated in our June 17, 2021 message, UTRGV is investing further in you by committing $14 million to faculty and staff salaries. Described below is the methodology followed for both market equity and merit raises, both of which are permanent increases to base salaries.
Merit
On July 30, 2021, you received a communication detailing the eligibility requirements for merit raises. For staff, merit raises are distributed based on the annual evaluation and review by the supervisor. For faculty, merit raises are distributed according to each college’s guidelines.
Market Equity
Market equity adjustments are also included in this year’s compensation plan.
Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty – Our recent shift from a Doctoral University with Moderate Research Activity Carnegie classification to the R2 Carnegie classification means that we are now in a new comparison group with higher salary comparisons. Therefore, this year’s methodology includes a comparison to 2020-21 CUPA-HR data for R2 institutions (56 institutions and approximately 24,901 faculty), by CIP and rank. CIP refers to the Classification of Instructional Programs taxonomy maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics. The methodology for faculty market equity adjustments was reviewed by a faculty task force assembled with the assistance of Faculty Senate and WFN. We want to thank each member of the task force who met weekly earlier this summer to review the available data and fine-tune the methodology for determining market equity for this year’s efforts. That said, our goal is to move to the 25th percentile this year for each CIP and rank salary range, which will impact just over 38% of faculty or 244 individuals.
Lecturers, Professors of Practice, and Clinical Faculty – The current salary ranges for lecturers, professors of practice, and clinical faculty were reviewed by a task force of faculty at each college. The broad range of disciplines, the varying markets, and the absence of a single data set like CUPA-HR made it necessary to do this analysis at the college level. Faculty members helped provide us with updated salary ranges for every college, which will impact over 61% of faculty or 231 individuals. Thank you to each member of our faculty who participated in this important work over the summer.
Staff Market Equity – A thorough review of every staff member’s education and experience (based on current job title) was conducted to ensure that staff members are making steady progress within their salary ranges. Our goal is to eventually advance staff compensation toward an average placement at the 25th percentile. Reaching this goal will take a two-year approach. The individual placement of staff was based on having been employed with UTRGV in a staff position before September 1, 2020, and meeting certain milestones. Staff exceeding the 30th percentile of their range did not receive a market adjustment during this review. Thank you to all department heads and supervisors who helped collect this valuable information in the spirit of supporting our dedicated staff.
As previously shared, every employee receiving a salary adjustment will be emailed a personalized letter outlining their total salary increase and the breakout of increase type. Additionally, these adjustments will go into effect September 1, 2021 and will appear on your October 1, 2021 paycheck.
Last but not least, thank you for continuing to share your energy and talent with all of us here at UTRGV. In spite of financial difficulties earlier in our history, we have always been committed to making our salaries competitive with our peers. In prior years, between FY16 and FY21, we were able to invest $24M. We are fortunate to be able to make a stronger commitment this year with more than $14M invested. Whether you've dedicated years of service to UTRGV and its legacy institutions or are relatively new to our institutional family, we thank you for your continued commitment to UTRGV, our students and each other. We are very proud of what you have accomplished so far and can’t wait to see what you will achieve next.
Sincerely,
Guy Bailey
President
Janna Arney
Deputy President and Interim Provost