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COMPETITIVE AND PRE-EMPTIVE OFFERS
Reference: Handbook, Vol. II, Section 24-71
Dean's Office contact: Divisional Dean
When a faculty member receives a formal competitive offer or
when a pre-emptive offer is being considered, the chair should notify the
Divisional Dean to discuss an appropriate response. After the Dean has approved a response, the
chair negotiates directly with the faculty member. Experience shows that retention success is
most closely tied to the chair's efforts.
The Handbook states that the faculty of each academic
unit shall document biennially the level of consultation, if any, they deem
necessary before competitive salary offers may be made.
Retention guidelines.
Because
the College shares significantly in the costs of retention, the standards for
making retention offers must be high.
(1) The individual must have both an outstanding academic
record and a major impact on University programs and colleagues consistent with
rank and experience.
(2) The individual should have above-average merit
evaluations in recent reviews.
(3) The competitive offer must come from a comparable
institution or department. Response is
unlikely to offers from institutions of significantly lesser reputation, even
if the offered salary is higher. A
response is usually not made to offers from industry or other non-academic
employers.
(4) Consideration is given to the length of time since a
previous retention offer was made.
University policy requires a minimum of three years between retention
offers.
(5) The department must approve the making of a retention
offer, following departmental guidelines.
Amount of retention offers
(1) College practice is to target a new salary halfway between the current and proposed salaries, unless equity considerations justify a larger salary.
(2) Departments are expected to contribute an above-average
merit raise in the next allocation, unless the merit raise is 2 percent or
less. The actual percentage is
determined annually.
(3) Other elements involving one-time funding will be
provided through a combination of departmental, College, and University
resources.
Making a retention offer
(1) The department should follow its adopted procedures to
approve the request for a retention offer.
Then the following materials are sent to the Dean's Office for review:
(a) a copy of the competitive offer letter, or a letter from the
chair outlining the circumstances that might lead to a pre-emptive offer;
(b) the chair's statement in favor of retention, giving the
department's response and addressing the retention guidelines listed above;
(c) the faculty member's curriculum vitae and copies of student
and peer teaching evaluations for the past three years.
(2) The materials are reviewed by the Divisional Dean and
Dean, and a decision is made concerning the retention offer. If approved, the retention offer is worked
out among the chair, Divisional Dean, and Provost's Office. The Dean must obtain the Provost's approval
for all counteroffer salary increases.
When details of the offer are finalized, a draft of the response letter
to the faculty member should be reviewed in advance by
(3) A salary counteroffer will not take effect until the
faculty member declines the competitive offer in writing, and this decision
must be in hand in time for the salary increase to be processed (normally sixty
days). The salary counteroffer is
normally made effective at the beginning of the next academic year.
(4) When the negotiations are completed and the faculty
member has submitted his/her decision in writing, the chair must fill out
University Form 1039, "Report of Competitive Offer," and submit it to
the Dean's Office. A copy of this form
can be found on the Academic Human Resources Web site.