Merit Policy

LA/PPS No. 04.01.50 (2.01) 

Issue No. 02 

Effective Date: September 1, 2025 

Next Review: September 1, 2030 (E5Y) 

Senior Reviewer: Dean  

POLICY STATEMENT 

The College of Liberal Arts is committed to adhering to fair performance-based merit adjustments to the salaries of all continuing percent-contract faculty (§05.01 AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments).  

01. PURPOSE 

01.01 The purpose of this policy and procedure statement is to define the college’s criteria for eligibility for merit raises and identify the process by which eligibility for merit raises will be determined. 

01.02 This policy does not cover faculty retention salary adjustments, equity adjustments, and other additional compensation. See §10-11 AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments for details of these matters. 

02. GENERAL POLICY 

02.01 It is the policy of the university and the college that all faculty are evaluated annually (AA/PPS No. 04.02.10 Performance Evaluation of Faculty and Post-Tenure Review, LA/PPS No. 04.02.10 Annual Performance Evaluation of Faculty). The evaluation period covers the preceding calendar year and must be completed by March 15. 

02.02 The college uses a rating system of meets and does not meet in annual evaluation (§03.01 LA/PPS No. 04.02.10 Annual Performance Evaluation of Faculty); therefore, the minimal expectation for merit is to meet expectations in teaching, scholarly or creative activities, and service. Departmental evaluation policies and expectations may differ but must meet the college’s minimal levels of expectations in these three areas. 

02.03 Each department is responsible for developing a policy and procedure statement that identifies the criteria and procedures for recommending merit adjustments. The department’s PPS must be approved by the personnel committee, the chair, and the dean, with periodic review by the provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs (EVPAA). 

02.04 All merit raises from funds allocated to departments will be recommended by chairs based on annual evaluations conducted in accordance with approved department, college (LA/PPS No. 04.02.10 Annual Performance Evaluation of Faculty), and university (AA/PPS No. 04.02.10 Performance Evaluation of Faculty and Post-Tenure Review) policies for the performance evaluation of faculty and faculty workload (LA/PPS No. 04.01.40 Workload, AA/PPS No. 04.01.40 Faculty Workload). 

03. DEFINITIONS 

03.01 A merit raise is additional salary to be awarded to faculty whose performance was clearly exceptional during the designated merit evaluation period (§07.01 AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

03.02 All continuing percent-contract faculty are eligible for merit raises awarded through this process, except for doctoral and graduate assistants, chairs, deans, and a few specially assigned faculty members identified annually by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs (§05.01 AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

03.03 The calendar year from January 1 through December 31 is the time-period used for annual evaluation and merit considerations. All materials and documentation submitted for consideration must have been completed in this time-period. 

04. PROCEDURES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

04.01 When upper administration announces merit funds are available, the dean will inform chairs as to the deadline to make merit recommendations.  

04.02 Each department shall adopt criteria that reflect faculty responsibilities in the areas of teaching, scholarly or creative activities, and service. Effort in each of these areas should be weighted according to the faculty appointment type, duties, and assigned workload for the individual faculty member (§07.02a AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

04.03 In developing merit recommendations to the dean, the chair will convene the personnel committee, or its designated subgroup, to review the annual evaluations of eligible faculty and to secure the advice of that group regarding merit salary increase recommendations for that calendar year (§07.02e AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

04.04 The chair will ensure that each eligible faculty member has a copy of the College and department’s criteria. Merit awards should be based on meritorious performance for the identified evaluation period, normally three years. The rolling multi-year period allows faculty who have stellar accomplishments in one or two years, but fewer in the others, to qualify for an averaged degree of merit (§07.02c AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

04.05 Before making final merit recommendations, chairs are required to indicate to each faculty member, whether the chair intends to recommend that faculty member for merit and at the very least the approximate level of merit determined for that faculty member (e.g., high, medium, low) (§07.02e AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). Faculty have five working days to request a meeting with the chair if they believe their accomplishments were overlooked or undervalued. At this meeting, the chair will explain the reasons for the level of merit or for denying merit, and the faculty member may ask the chair to reconsider the preliminary decision based on accomplishments or achievements that may have been initially overlooked or undervalued. After reconsidering the accomplishments of all faculty who request a review of their activities, the chair will proceed to make final merit recommendations to the dean (§07.02f AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

04.06 Chairs may, but are not required to, inform their faculty of the final merit award for all faculty members in the department (§07.02h AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). 

05. APPEALS 

05.01 Faculty who are dissatisfied with the chair’s final merit recommendation may appeal to and meet with the dean (§07.02g AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). If the dean upholds the chair’s recommendation, they shall provide a rationale to the appealing faculty member (§08.01 AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments). The dean’s decision is final. 

05.02 A summary of all appeals submitted to the dean using the Merit Appeals Form (§08.03 AA/PPS No. 04.01.50 Faculty Merit and Retention Salary Adjustments), however they are resolved, must be maintained on file in the dean’s office. Subsequent appeals regarding performance evaluation and merit recommendations may be made through the faculty grievance process (see AA/PPS No. 04.02.32, Faculty Grievance Policy). 

06. LIST OF REVIEWERS OF PPS 

06.01 This PPS has the following reviewers and cycle. 

07. CERTIFICATION STATEMENT 

This LA/PPS has been approved by the following in their official capacities and represents College of Liberal Arts policy and procedure from the date of this document until superseded. 

Liberal Arts Council 

Dean, College of Liberal Arts