As the University of Iowa prepares for the new fiscal year on July 1, university leadership has announced it is allocating $4.9 million to boost faculty pay. UI President J. Bruce Harreld set a goal of raising average salaries for full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty to 95 percent of the median of the university’s peer group, and the additional revenue will help close the gap.

The Office of the Provost analyzed faculty salary data from the American Association of Universities and distributed the $4.9 million to the colleges accordingly. Each college will then allocate funds based on its own metrics. The average salary within a college may be raised to the 95 percent threshold, but the salaries of individual faculty within a college will vary. The Office of the Provost’s calculation excludes clinical and non–tenure track faculty.

Because the university will not be able to fully calculate revenue until after the enrollment count this fall, additional revenues will be distributed in the fall. Deans and unit leaders have the option of approving staggered or mid-year raises. Continuing the collaborative, values-based budget process initiated last year, university leadership has given the colleges the flexibility to provide increases to other valued members of the faculty, including clinical and non–tenure track faculty, based on unique needs and priorities.

Increases for non-bargaining professional and scientific staff will be based on performance and competitive marketplace conditions and available funding.

Collegiate and administrative leaders will be asked to complete and submit initial unit budgets by the end of June to enable the submission of the university’s budget to the Board of Regents in July.

Last year, the university launched a new collaborative, values-based budget process in which unit leadership received greater control over budgetary decisions. Units were asked to locate the resources to raise salaries and curtail the poaching of UI faculty by better-funded competitors. This resulted in an average faculty salary increase of 2.6 percent for fiscal year 2017 and an average staff salary increase of 2.5 percent for non-bargaining P&S staff, which surpasses early university estimates of 2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.