Merit Pay Distribution Plan for UMIACS Faculty

In compliance with the University of Maryland Policy on Faculty Merit Pay Distribution revised in May 2010, this document provides a merit pay distribution plan for tenured and tenure-track faculty in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). 

Merit Pay Committee 

A Merit Pay Committee, consisting of three faculty members, will serve to advise the Director on merit pay distribution. The Committee will be directly elected annually via secret ballot by the tenure-track and tenured faculty. Actual merit dollar distribution will be determined by the Director in consultation with the Committee’s evaluation of the Institute’s faculty. 

Insofar as possible, the Merit Pay Committee’s composition over a period of years will reflect the scholarly interests, gender and racial distribution of the Institute. A faculty member may not serve more than two consecutive years on the Committee. 

The Merit Pay Committee will evaluate and rank faculty accomplishments. This evaluation will give significant weight to contributions in research/scholarship/creative activity and service over the preceding three years. Measures to be used in this evaluation will include the quantity and quality of publications in refereed journals/conferences, success in acquisition of research funding, mentorship, level of service on institute and campus committees, and leadership contributions to external professional organizations, journals and conferences. 

Each year the Institute will provide the Committee with documentation of faculty achievements for the immediately preceding year. These documents will be retained by the Committee for at least three years, or until they are no longer to be used during faculty evaluations. 

For each year when merit pay is not available, the achievements of faculty members for that year will be taken into consideration during the next year in which merit pay is available. 

The Merit Pay Committee will certify that they have followed the Institute’s Merit Pay Distribution Plan, or will provide a rationale in any situations where they have deviated from the Plan. 

Director’s Responsibility 

The Director has the authority and responsibility to determine merit increases and merit dollar distribution, subject to the approval of the Dean. However, the Director will be advised in this endeavor by the Merit Pay Committee as outlined above. Merit pay will generally be distributed in dollar increments rather than as a percentage of salary.

The Director will report to the Merit Pay Committee his/her final salary recommendations.

Each year the Director will review the makeup of the Merit Pay Committee over the previous five years to assure that a reasonable representation of the faculty has been achieved, and if it has not, the Director will take appropriate actions to rectify the situation.

Each faculty member will receive a letter from the Director containing his/her new salary and the salary increase. The letter will identify in general terms the Merit Pay Committee’s evaluation of the faculty member and how this was used to assign the merit increase. The letter will inform the faculty member that he/she may request a meeting with the Director to receive an explanation of the merit pay decision. In some cases, this letter may be signed by the Director jointly with the Chair of the faculty member’s tenure home department and the raises may not be broken down by unit.

Faculty members have the right to appeal the merit pay decision via a formal letter to the Director.

The Director will evaluate the salary structure of the Institute annually and consult with the Dean to address salary compression or inequities that have developed in the Institute.

The Director will certify that he/she has followed the Institute’s Merit Pay Distribution Plan, or will indicate areas where deviations have occurred with a rationale.

Implementation

The three-year duration of faculty evaluations will be phased in over three years following the approval of this plan by the campus; this will permit accumulation of faculty achievement documentation.

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