Metropolitan State College of Denver is considering a faculty pay-for-performance system that would be the first of its kind in Colorado.
The idea, in the earliest development phase, would reward faculty who meet and exceed yet-to-be-determined criteria with bigger pay increases.
All faculty would receive an annual 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment, with the rest of any increase coming from merit funding, president Stephen Jordan said.
Merit pay could be funded with state money and tuition from Metro’s growing student population. For instance, $3 million in merit money would mean an average increase of $8,400 for the school’s 360 faculty, with some getting more or less depending on performance, Jordan said.
“People that do outstanding work ought to get paid,” said Bruce Benson, chairman of the school’s board of trustees, which directed Jordan to explore pay-for-performance.
Faculty members said they support rewarding good work but are concerned about how the system would work. Nancy Shanks, chairwoman of the health professions department, said evaluation standards must be objective and equitable across disciplines.
Faculty also said they worried that merit bonuses won’t be a permanent addition to their base salary. By not compounding the merit pay, a professor with a $45,000 starting salary could lose $400,000 over a 30-year career, said Steve Beaty, math and computer science department chairman.
“That makes a huge impact on a career,” he said.
In 2002, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York shifted to a pay-for-performance system. Like Metro, evaluations varied greatly among departments before the switch, said Achille Messac, the institute’s faculty chairman.
Overall, the faculty approves of the changes, though some wish there was a cost-of-living increase, Messac said. Merit raises – which range from less than 1 percent to more than 15 percent – are added to the base salary.
“I would think for it to be meaningful it would have to be part of the base salary,” he said.
Curtis Powell, vice president of human resources at the private school, credits the new system with improving the school’s ranking among top research universities from 49th to 42nd.
“The world is changing; it’s becoming more competitive,” he said. “So in order for us to be competitive, we have to have a faculty that understands how their pay is aligned to the progress of the university.”
David Longanecker of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education said he doesn’t know of any other public institutions besides Metro considering the change.
“The schools doing this are on the cutting edge,” he said.
In order for it to work, both Powell and Messac agree, the faculty must be deeply involved from beginning to end. Jordan and Benson said that’s the plan.
“This is a whole different way for our faculty to think,” Jordan said.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-954-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
