Resources on the Incentive-Based Budget Model for Faculty Resources

Faculty support, in the form of salaries and benefits, is based on a partnership between the central campus, college and school Deans, and departments.  Beginning in 2012-13, the campus implemented the Faculty Resources module of the budget model, which shifted responsibility for fully funding faculty positions at the time of hire from the campus to the deans instead of maintaining a certain level of funding (equivalent to an Assistant Professor III) at the Dean’s office and funding above that from the campus.  Under the Faculty Resources budget model, Deans provide full funding for new faculty hires and the campus allocates central funding to support salary and benefit adjustments (i.e., faculty merits and range adjustments for costs allocated to state funds and tuition).

When a faculty member retires or resigns, the Dean’s office returns a percentage of the exit salary and benefits to the campus.  Since the unit is responsible for funding the full cost of a replacement, the remaining salary and benefits are available for the Dean’s use for that or another position.  This provides greater flexibility to the Dean, better reflects the cost of hiring new faculty in the unit incurring the expense, and, on average, leaves sufficient funds to replace a position when a faculty member separates.  The share returned to the campus represents campus investments over the course of the faculty member’s career.  These funds to a pool of funding the campus reinvests in response to campuswide issues or specific hiring decisions that may be different from those within a specific college or school, such as the Faculty Hiring Investment Program (HIP) or the CAMPOS and IRI Scholars Programs that advance faculty diversity.  In addition, these funds are available to support faculty  startup, merits, equities, and other salary programs.

In most instances, Table 1 shows the investments made by the Dean and campus over the course of a faculty hire, during the faculty member’s career, and when the faculty appointment terminates.  Special instances, such as joint appointments, denial of tenure, return to faculty of a Dean or academic administrator, and faculty loans are discussed in the white paper on this topic.

Table 1.  Investments in Faculty Appointments by Dean and Campus

The return of funding varies by type of unit (i.e., College or School) and the reason for the termination of employment, as shown in Table 2.  On an annual basis, BIA reviews the average cost of hiring a faculty member compared to the exit salaries of those retiring or separating to verify that there are not substantial changes in these metrics that would merit a change in the return percentages.   Return percentages were last adjusted in fiscal year 2017.

Table 2.  Academic Unit Exit Salary Return Schedule

No changes are planned to this component of the Incentive-Based budget model.

For more information, contact the Budget Office.

Issue Papers (PDFs):

• Faculty Resources Update – December 2021
• Faculty Resources Update – October 2017