UofSC approves plan for $7.4 million in faculty raises
Posted on: February 21, 2020; Updated on: February 21, 2020
By Jeff Stensland, stenslan@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-3686
The University of South Carolina approved a sweeping plan Friday to boost faculty salaries, helping to make compensation on the Columbia campus more competitive with other peer research institutions across the nation.
The plan, proposed by President Bob Caslen and approved unanimously by the university’s Board of Trustees, will invest $7.4 million, including fringe, into compression salary adjustments and merit and retention raises. “Faculty are the backbone of our educational mission, so we must invest in them if we’re going to continue to attract and retain high caliber talent,” Caslen said.
Of the $7.4 million, about half will be earmarked for compression salary increases for tenure-track and tenured faculty. Beginning in April, those whose salary is currently below 95 percent of average salaries benchmarked against Carnegie research and Southeastern higher education peers will be eligible for an increase. Any individual faculty member who is below the benchmark and has been at the university for at least three years will receive a maximum of the following: $1,500 for assistant professors; $4,000 for associate professors; $8,000 for full professors; $3,000 for librarians.
The additional $3.7 million will be used by colleges for Columbia and Palmetto College faculty merit and retention raises. Each college and school will have flexibility to develop its own criteria this spring to identify eligible candidates, said Interim Provost Tayloe Harding.
“This is the first campuswide, merit-based salary initiative our institution has offered in more than a decade, and I commend President Caslen for championing this important measure. It sends a clear message that our university places a priority on rewarding excellent research and teaching.”
The university’s Division of Human Resources has launched a review of staff compensation to determine a plan for additional salary adjustments in the future.
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