Salary adjustments for faculty are made annually contingent on available funds. For teaching faculty, tenure-track and tenured faculty, these adjustments generally take effect January 1. Recommendations for merit increases are to be determined by the supervising administrator in consultation with colleagues in the primary academic unit as defined by unit rules and college/school guidelines.
Ìý
Regental policy requires that each primary unit develop explicit statements for criteria for assessing annual merit. These statements must be in writing and must be available to faculty. New faculty members should be provided a copy of their unit's evaluation criteria as early in their first year of employment as is practical. The criteria for assessing annual merit adjustments are to include measures of each faculty member's contribution to the teaching, scholarly and creative work, and leadership and service missions of the primary unit and the University. Effort in each of these areas is to be weighted according to the workload assignment for the individual faculty member.
Ìý
With regards to salary equity, chairs are encouraged to analyze the salary distribution data provided to each department on a regular basis (these scatter plots provide a quick analysis of salary distributions within a unit, with women and faculty of color highlighted, and can be used to identify individuals who may or may not have a salary inequity relative to their peers. These of course, do not correct for differences in career merit). Supervising administrators who believe that a salary inequity exists within their unit should refer to the section on salary adjustments in .
Ìý
The justification for the performance rating may consist of numerical, narrative, or other evaluative processes, at the discretion of the campus. Existing evaluation processes, including the Faculty Report of Professional Activities (FRPA), may be used to arrive at the annual performance rating. A description of the evaluation process and the criteria to be used must be available, in writing, to each faculty member.
In order to moderate extreme variation in merit assessment year-to-year due to variable achievement beyond the faculty member's direct control, some units combine data from the year's annual evaluation with data from one or more previous years. Some colleges require multiple year averaging to be part of every unit's assessment procedure. Currently, two forms are used at the unit level as part of the merit assessment and salary adjustment process. The first of these forms is titledÌýAnnual Merit Evaluation: Advice and Comments.ÌýThis form is a confidential working document, and is used by the supervising administrator or assessment committee to provide advice to each faculty member regarding their professional performance. In addition, this form converts to a numeric or scaled rating the performance of that faculty member relative to their peers.
The second form is titledÌýFaculty Performance Rating.ÌýThis is a public document. This document summarizes the annual performance of the faculty member in each of the three workload areas. This performance rating is shared with the faculty member, who is asked to sign the form. Ìý
In addition to a faculty member's evaluation, Regental policy requires that each faculty member also receive an annual performance rating. The performance rating system requires that each faculty member's performance be rated as outstanding, exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, below expectations, or fails to meet expectations. The rated faculty member has the right to append a response to the rating if they so desire. A copy of this performance rating is placed in the faculty member's personnel file and is subject to disclosure under the Colorado Open Records Act.