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Home > Faculty : Retention Guidelines

Retention Guidelines

Questions concerning faculty retention and preventive retention guidelines in the College of Liberal Arts should be directed to the Office of the Associate Dean for Faculty.

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General Statement

A department may, at its own discretion, pursue with the college a preventive retention or retention arrangement for a member of the regular (tenure-track and tenured) faculty. The most common items that constitute a preventive retention or retention offer include an increase in salary and research support.

Preventive Retention Guidelines

A preventive retention offer is extended jointly by the college and a department to induce a productive faculty member to remain at the University of Minnesota when another peer (or more prestigious) institution expresses a serious interest in recruiting that faculty member. The goal of a preventive retention offer is to convey the institution’s appreciation for the contributions made by the faculty member. 

Preventive retention offers should be made by the department and the college and accepted by the faculty member before the faculty member leaves for a campus/final interview at another institution. To be eligible for a preventive retention offer, a faculty member should be in the process of being actively recruited by the competing institution. 

Retention Guidelines

A retention offer is extended jointly by the college and a department to induce a productive faculty member to remain at the University of Minnesota after that faculty member has already received a written offer from another peer (or more highly ranked) institution. 

Salary Considerations

In the first year of the arrangement, the salary component of prevention retentions and retentions is funded in the following manner:

• Standard merit increase from the unit merit pool is applied.
• Of the remaining amount needed to arrive at the agreed-upon new salary, 25% is funded from the unit merit pool, with the remaining 75% funded by the college.
  Note: Each year, the college, in consultation with the Executive Committee, will determine a floor below which the merit pool would not be allowed to fall.

In other words, in ordinary circumstances, one-fourth of the retention salary increase comes from the unit's merit pool in the first year. For example, if the regular merit pool is 3% and Professor X is being awarded a retention salary increase of 11%, then the retention increase Professor X receives is 8%. One-fourth of the 8% retention increase (2%) will come from the unit’s merit pool and the rest (6%) will come from the college.

Procedure

Chairs/directors are asked to provide the following information when contacting the college with a request for a preventive retention or retention offer:

• What are the chief reasons why the faculty member is attracted to the other institution?
• Information about the department and the institution where the faculty member is applying: How do the department and the institution compare with our own in terms of prestige/productivity/ranking in the profession? Does the department have a PhD program? What kind of reputation does it have in the faculty member’s field/sub-field?
• The faculty member’s current salary and research support  (including research funds, course releases, internal and external leaves and grants) as well as the remaining balance in the faculty member’s existing research account.
• In case of retention, the cost of living differential between the Twin Cities and the place where the faculty member is being recruited should be taken into account.
• Salary equity issues in the department should be carefully considered.
• The department’s process of handling preventive retention and retention situations, and the level of support in the unit for the proposed preventive retention or retention offer.  The college does not prescribe an established protocol that must be followed in the department.  In some departments, review by the faculty equal or senior in rank to the candidate is standard practice; in others, the executive committee serves in an advisory capacity to the chair/director. In all cases, it is the responsibility of the unit chair/director to bring retention and preventive retention matters to the attention of the college on behalf of the faculty, and to report fully on the degree of support among the faculty, including majority and minority views, if any.

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