Approved April 2024

When a faculty member receives a written offer for a position at another institution or one appears imminent, they may be considered for a retention offer. Retention offers will only be considered if offers are received from peer academic institutions. Pre-retention offers, if made available from the College of Engineering, may also be considered for faculty who have a consistently outstanding record.

The decision to make a retention or pre-retention offer will require an outstanding record of scholarship, teaching, and service (proportional to the workload for the faculty member’s track and rank and as agreed in Chapter 24 meetings), significant contributions to University and Department programs relative to the rank of the faculty member, and/or equity issues (regarding salary, promotion, or hiring) within the department and university. 

Retention offers and pre-retention offers require a minimum of 3 years since the last retention offer was made as per University policy.

Process. The Department Chair will consult with senior faculty (including, but not limited to, the Executive Committee, Associate Chairs, and/or Professors/Teaching Professors/Research Professors) on the merits of making a retention or pre-retention offer with a broad view toward equity and effects of the offer on the department's strategic priorities. In particular, the Chair will do due diligence to consider wider impacts of the retention or pre-retention offer (e.g., the person’s role in perpetuating or challenging individual, institutional, or structural harms and how the person’s academic record has benefited or suffered from systemic bias). This process will also take into consideration results of the past three merit reviews, including any recommended prioritization for a salary adjustment. The Chair will negotiate any retention or pre-retention offer with the Dean of the College of Engineering.

Transparency. At merit review, faculty whose salaries have been adjusted by retention, pre-retention, or unit adjustment in the past year will be footnoted in the salary information made available to voting faculty. 

As part of the process for affirming or amending this policy, the Chair or their designee will summarize how pre-retention and retention have been used since the past affirmation or amendment of this policy including (a) salary and non-salary aspects of offers and (b) number of offers made and number accepted.