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The success of our academic mission requires a continuous investment in faculty salaries to ensure we maintain outstanding research, scholarship, creative work, teaching and service.Ìý

At Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder, we’re making that investment through three key actions: raising promotion and tenure compensation, making $12 million in structural salary adjustments in partnership with the deans to strengthen competitiveness of tenured and tenure-track faculty with our AAU public peers, and continuing our commitment to salary equity for tenured, tenure-track, teaching and clinical faculty.

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ann Stevens

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Tenure and promotion pay increases

Earlier this semester, inÌýresponse to the report of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Faculty Salary, I outlined our strategy for ensuring faculty salaries are competitive with our AAU public university peers.Ìý

TheÌýreport makes clear that our biggest salary gaps are among faculty who have gone through two milestone promotions, to associate professor and to full professor. To address these findings, we will implement larger salary increases at award of tenure and promotion to associate professor, professor, associate teaching professor and teaching professor.Ìý

To ensure flexibility in responding to both equity needs and market forces, faculty will receive either a flat amount or a percentage increase, whichever is greater given their salary level.Ìý

The dollar amounts and percentages will be set so, on average, they represent a significant increase over our current promotion increases. We will also set a percentage by which the flat amounts increase each year (likely 3%) so the amounts are not eroded over time. Finally, to ensure fiscal responsibility and account for our highest earning disciplines, we will include a cap of $20,000 for percentage increases.

Structural salary adjustments

In response to the task force’s call for greater salary competitiveness, the campus is investing $6 million in faculty compensation over the next three years. Together with an additional $6 million commitment from the colleges and schools, this represents a $12 million investment over the next three years. These resources are above and beyond the annual faculty merit pool.Ìý

In implementing this investment, I am asking deans to prioritize departments and faculty ranks where salaries lag most significantly behind our peers, particularly where faculty are performing at or above peer levels in research and creative work. While recognizing appropriate variation across and within units, this funding should be used both to strengthen overall salary competitiveness and to recognize and retain outstanding faculty.

Ongoing commitment to salary equity

Ensuring our faculty are paid equitably is central to our institutional values and requires an ongoing commitment. This fall, we are embarking on the annual faculty salary equity review process, following the interim faculty salary equity and grievance policies, which have been in place as of Aug. 12. The interim policies apply only to tenured, tenure-track, teaching and clinical faculty, not staff or temporary faculty.Ìý

Schools, colleges and academic support units with rostered faculty will receiveÌý aÌý targeted investment allocation for equity and compression.Ìý

Schools and colleges may establish local timelines and expectations for completing salary equity reviews. This can be completed concurrently with the fall 2026 merit process or during the spring 2027 review period. Regardless of the option selected, all primary units must complete an annual salary equity review no later than April 1, 2027, per theÌýinterim faculty salary equity policy. Moving forward, this annual salary equity review process may be done concurrently with the merit compensation process to address equity issues as they arise.

As we advance ourÌýfour campus priorities this year and in coming years, please know that my commitment to faculty andÌýstaff compensation remains unwavering. Our faculty and staff are at the heart of everything we do. Investing in you is critical to sustaining the excellence, innovation and student-centered experience that define Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder and enable us to make a meaningful impact across Colorado and beyond.

Ann Stevens
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

If you have questions regarding any of the processes referenced here, you can reviewÌýthis presentation, reach out to your college, school or institute dean’s office, or contact Danielle Brunner, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs budget and finance, atÌýdanielle.brunner@colorado.edu