Annual Merit Increase

University and SPS guidelines concerning annual salary increases for full-time continuing contract faculty for the coming academic year are set forth below. Also provided is the criteria to be used to evaluate performance and determine individual salary increases. For FY2025, a 3.5% pool to be awarded to eligible full-time continuing contract faculty. SPS has set aside .5% of this pool to recognize extraordinary merit, and Dean Kamath will work with unit leaders and the SPS HR Director to determine the employees who will receive an augmented increase amount based on their contributions to SPS, our desire to retain them and their leadership and growth potential at SPS.

The criteria for evaluating faculty should conform to SPS's Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion, and Grievance (ARP) Policy Guidelines. The ARP Policy specifies three areas of faculty responsibility:

• Teaching: including but not limited to: developing, creating, and teaching new courses; developing curricula; program review or revision; and advising, including supervising independent studies and internships.
• Service and Administration: these are key components of faculty engagement and all faculty are expected to contribute to these areas. For faculty whose responsibilities are primarily administrative, greater weight will be given to performance in this area.
• Scholarly Work, Creative Production, and Professional Activity: Professional engagement includes a range of activities that may strengthen a faculty member's professional profile, further fields of knowledge, enhance teaching excellence, and/or advance the mission of SPS.

Recommendations will be evaluated to ensure that they fall within the range of the overall pool.

Funds from the AMI pool will not be used to cover other salary adjustments such as tenure, promotion, retention, equity, or other increase

Determinations for faculty members who have had challenges meeting specific objectives and have been evaluated accordingly should be supported with a written rationale.

For those contract faculty receiving a promotion a minimum increase of 10% of current base salary, inclusive of AMI, will be recommended.

• Each full-time faculty member is asked to submit an Annual Faculty Activity Report (FAR) to their Associate Dean, which addresses each of the criteria outlined above. As part of the FAR process, the Associate Dean submits a written evaluation for each faculty member. The SPS Dean and the Vice Dean of Faculty then meet with every Associate Dean to discuss the FAR reports, their evaluations, and AMI allocations. Based on these conversations, Associate Deans submit salary recommendations to the Dean for review and final approval. There is no salary review committee at SPS.
• Once SPS has received approval of the AMI submission, electronic letters are generated and e-mailed out to full-time faculty in advance of the start of the new academic year, typically in early August. The letters will include language directing faculty to the SPS website where they can find the guidelines for faculty AMI's.
  
• SPS expects to stay within the 3.5% pool and written justification will be submitted for any proposed merit increases over 6% and under 1%.
• SPS may not distribute the entire AMI pool due to the following:
  • The AMI pool calculation includes lines where faculty have formally indicated they will be resigning at the end of the academic year. These funds will not necessarily be distributed during the process.
  • At SPS, AMI increases may be applied to select faculty stipends.
  • Visiting faculty do not typically receive an AMI. The Dean’s Office will consider requests from academic units on an exception basis.