Responses to competitive offers in connection with faculty recruitment and retention have given rise to large salary inequities in many units. There are cases of faculty members who have served the university well for two or even three decades whose salaries are not much higher than those of inexperienced junior faculty in the same units. The Administration tries to address these inequities in setting departmental guidelines for distributing merit salary adjustments, but state appropriations in recent years have not been large enough for this policy to have much impact. A separate committee is examining the current UW faculty salary system, and their recommendations will deserve serious consideration. Until the funding picture improves to the point where merit salary adjustments constitute a reward, or a salary ladder like the one in the University of California system can be instituted, the only useful actions that our Committee can suggest to improve upon faculty rewards are small steps to recognize special achievements or special needs of faculty in a number of different situations.
The distinguished teaching awards at the University and College levels are highly valued, though it should be recognized that these modest, one-time, cash awards have only a token impact upon a faculty member's earnings over the course of their university careers. The two recommendations that follow would expand the rewards for outstanding teaching and mentoring of students.
Recommendation 11: The University and the Colleges should explore additional ways of recognizing and rewarding outstanding teaching and mentoring of students.
Recommendation 12: Consideration should be given to establishing an additional rank above the level of full professor (and a counterpart rank for senior lecturers) that would recognize outstanding contributions to the University, including teaching excellence. Promotion to these broadly available new ranks would be based on a comprehensive collegial review of the faculty member's contributions and it would be accompanied by a prescribed salary increase.
Rewards other than monetary ones might also be considered for recipients of distinguished teaching awards and/or faculty promoted to the higher rank.
Recommendation 13: Arrangements should be explored to enable chairs of departments with little or no revenues from indirect cost returns to respond quickly to pressing and/or unanticipated faculty needs. Even if the amount of money allocated for these purposes cannot be large, the mere existence of such a category would be welcomed by the faculty, particularly in units that are almost entirely dependent upon the state budget.
Research and WOT faculty at the University of Washington have nothing to fall back on in the event of a lapse in their grants or contracts. It is the Committee's understanding that some salary continuation could potentially be provided to them, at no direct cost to the state budget, by procedural changes involving the calculation of benefits and/or indirect costs.
Recommendation 14: Renewed efforts should be undertaken to establish a reserve for the purpose of ensuring salary continuation for research faculty and WOT faculty in the event of a temporary lapse in the funding from their research grants.
The skyrocketing cost of housing in the Seattle area raises concerns about the ability of the UW to continue to recruit outstanding junior faculty, given current salary levels. This may be a good time to explore the feasibility of providing subsidized housing for new faculty in lieu of the inordinately high starting salaries they would need to be paid in order to be able to afford to purchase a home. Such a policy would reduce the tendency for "salary compression" within departments. Another strong incentive in faculty recruitment would be the availability of free or subsidized child care.
Recommendation 15: The University should utilize a portion of its endowment and/or work with the local banking community to develop a program of subsidized low-interest mortgage loans designed to make it more feasible for newly hired faculty to afford to purchase homes.
Recommendation 16: The University should explore the feasibility of setting up a child-care facility.
Recommendation 17: One of the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of college and department leadership should be the degree to which it promotes faculty collegiality and sense of belonging within their respective units and substantive interdepartmental and intercollege contacts between faculty. Training and mentoring of deans and department chairs should reflect these goals.
The role of the faculty in the governance of the university is both a responsibility and a reward. Our Committee would like to see increased participation in faculty councils and the Faculty Senate and more faculty input on administrative decisions that affect them.
Recommendation 18: The Provost should appoint a faculty committee to advise him on matters related to faculty rewards and responsibilities that transcend college boundaries and such other matters as he might seek its counsel on. The terms of reference of this committee should be delimited in such a way as to ensure that it complements, rather than attempts to supersede, the various college councils.
