To: OSU Colleagues
From: Edward Feser, Provost and Executive Vice President
Mike Green, Vice President of Finance and Administration
15 November 2018
Dear OSU colleagues,
Oregon State University is deeply appreciative of the outstanding contributions, dedication, and hard work of its employees, and the university is committed to attracting and retaining high quality and productive faculty and staff. We strive to support our employees fairly while also balancing competing financial pressures, including challenges in state and federal support for higher education, the imperative to keep the cost of attendance manageable for students, and the need to invest in priorities that advance the university’s mission and financial viability.
You likely have heard or read that total enrollment in Corvallis was down this fall and only up slightly university-wide. The result is that the university did not meet its revenue projections for the current year’s budget, which anticipated stronger enrollment growth. Discussions are in progress on how to manage the resulting shortfall but our commitment to a salary increase remains of the highest priority. Offering competitive compensation is critical to OSU’s goals to recruit, retain and support the very best faculty and staff. To delay a salary program at this time would put our salaries at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis our peers, a problem that has a compounding effect that is hard to rectify later.
Therefore, implementation of a university-wide salary increase program for faculty is underway. Academic, research, and professional faculty members—who have performed at a satisfactory level or better and have received an evaluation within university guidelines—are eligible for salary increase consideration if they were hired into their current position prior to January 1, 2018 and work half-time or more. Eligible faculty with fully satisfactory performance will receive a 1.8 percent salary increase in their base annual salary rate effective January 1, 2019 for 12-month faculty, and February 1, 2019 for 9-month faculty. Additional increases may be allocated to eligible employees based on performance, compression, and/or equity considerations.
Detailed information regarding merit compensation increases has been provided to unit leaders, who are responsible for deciding any changes in compensation for their employees.
Please direct any questions to Susan Capalbo, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, or Cathy Hasenpflug, Chief Human Resources Officer.
Sincerely yours,
Edward Feser
Provost and Executive Vice President
Mike Green
Vice President for Finance and Administration