Raise Allocation Policy

Department of Physics & Astronomy Raise Allocation Policy (2016 Revision of 2007 Policy)

PDF version of this policy

I. Introduction

The raise allocation policy for the Department of Physics & Astronomy consists of three parts. Part A, called "Meritorious Contribution," provides a coarse grained measure of a faculty member’s contributions during the calendar year (CY) under review, relative to the expected level for his/her rank. Part B, called "Meritorious Achievement," provides a fine-grained measure of a faculty mem ber’s professional achievements during the CY under review. Part C, called "Head’s Discretion," provides a mechanism by which the Head can address cir cumstances during the CY under review that are related to raises but not cov ered by Parts A and B (e.g., salary compression or inversion, retention counter offers, transient shortcomings of the present policy to be corrected at the next policy review, etc.).

II. Part A: Meritorious Contribution

At the time of annual evaluations, each faculty member will rate herself/himself in each of teaching, research/scholarship, and service on a scale of 0–4:

• 0 = performed well below the expected level for his/her rank
• 1 = performed somewhat below the expected level for his/her rank
• 2 = performed roughly at the expected level for his/her rank
• 3 = performed somewhat above the expected level for his/her rank
• 4 = performed well above the expected level for his/her rank

The faculty member will also provide a justification for each rating. (This could be done, for example, by directed reference to his/her UGA Elements Report and our departmental online merit point system.) The Head will then judge whether or not these proposed ratings are reasonable and make adjustments (up or down) accordingly. The faculty member’s overall rating, R, will be the sum of the ratings assigned by the Head in each of the three categories. Thus a "meets expectations" rating in each category yields an overall rating of R = 6. The fraction of his/her full portion of the Part A raise to which the faculty mem ber will be entitled is min(1, R/6). The expectation is that most faculty mem bers would have R ≥ 6 and thus earn their full portion of the Part A raise. Note, however, that this full portion might be earned even while underperforming in one area, provided the faculty member excels in another area, thus providing each faculty member some measure of flexibility.

The following are non-exhaustive lists of the types of activities associated with each of the three rating categories. The purpose of these lists is to guide the faculty members and the Head in their thinking. No effort has been made here to assign relative merit to the various activities or distinguish relative merit within a given activity (e.g., invited talks vs. contributed talks). Each faculty member is expected to show good, reasonable judgment, and since the Head as signs final ratings, inflated (or deflated) rating suggestions will undoubtedly be adjusted accordingly by the Head.

• Teaching: Teaching courses; earning strongly positive student evalua tions; mentoring students in research; winning teaching prizes or awards; contributing to curriculum development; publishing educational materi als; writing recommendation letters for students and postdocs; etc.
• Research/Scholarship: Publishing papers; obtaining grants; funding stu dents and postdocs; giving extramural research presentations; submitting grant proposals; submitting papers; winning research prizes or awards; obtaining patents; having heavily cited papers; etc.
• Service: Serving on departmental committees; holding a departmental administrative position; serving on college or university committees or governing bodies; engaging in public service and outreach; serving as an officer or councilor of a professional society; participating in conference or workshop organization; editing journals or other professional publica tions; refereeing papers and proposals; serving on review panels, adviso ry boards, and the like; writing external letters of reference for faculty positions, prizes, and the like; etc.

The following describes how Part A raises are computed once ratings for all faculty members are established. Define the following symbols:

T_A = total raise pool for Part A raises (see Section V)

S_i = pre-raise salary of ith faculty member

R_i = rating for ith faculty member, as defined above

k_i = fraction of Part A raise earned by ith faculty member = min(1, R_i/6)

N = normalization factor = T_A/∑k_iS_i

Based on these definitions, the Part A raise earned by the ith faculty member is given by:

                         ∆S_i^(A)=Nk_iS_i                                   (1)

III. Part B: Meritorious Achievement

Meritorious achievement is assessed in this policy by awarding "merit points" to each faculty member for his/her professional achievements in the CY under re view. A list of categories for which merit points are given and their associated merit points (or merit point ranges) appear in the appendix "Merit Points". At the time of annual evaluations, each faculty member completes an online merit point form, as directed by the Head. Some categories (e.g., grant expenditures, teaching credit hours) are preloaded by the Head or his/her designee; others require information to be entered by the faculty member. Some merit-point categories require the faculty member to justify the request and/or suggest the number of merit points to be awarded, within a given range. The Head then judges whether the requests are reasonable and makes adjustments (up or down) accordingly. In addition, the Head may award merit points that the facul ty member did not think to request. In all cases, the Head will strive to apply uniform standards for all faculty members and avoid personal bias.

The following describes how Part B raises are computed once merit points have been determined for all faculty members. Define the following symbols:

T_B = total raise pool for Part B raises (see Section V)

f_p = fraction of T_B assigned on a salary-percentage basis (see Section V)

f_d = fraction of T_B assigned on a constant-dollar basis = 1 - f_p

S_i = pre-raise salary of ith faculty member

m_i = number of merit points awarded to ith faculty member

N_p = normalization factor for salary-percentage portion =f_pT_B/∑m_iS_i

N_d = normalization factor for constant-dollar portion = f_dT_B/∑m_i

Based on these definitions, the Part B raise earned by the ith faculty member is given by:

                                                      ∆S_i^(A)=N_pm_iS_i+N_dm_i                                          (2)

IV. Part C: Head’s Discretion

As described in Section I, this part of the raise pool is assigned at the Head’s dis cretion to deal with raise issues that either are not addressed or are inadequate ly addressed in Parts A and B. This may include, for example, adjustments asso ciated with demonstrable large variations among different research subfields in various measures of productivity and impact, such as publication rates, funding levels, citation rates, speaking invitations, etc.

Let T_C stand for the total raise pool for Part C raises (see Section V).  Then Part C raises are subject the following constraint:

                                                  ∑ ∆S_i^(C)≤ T_C                                           (3)

If the Part C raises do not exhaust T_C, then the Head adds the balance to T_B.

V. Raise-Pool Distribution Parameters and Computing Raises

As described in this document, raise allocations consist of three parts: Parts A, B, and C. The total raise pool, T, is divided into these three parts according to: T_A = g_AT, T_B = g_BT, and T_C = g_CT, where g_A + g_B + g_C = 1, so that T_A + T_B + T_C = T.  Recall that the meritorious achievement pool, T_B, is then further divided into two sub-pools: one assigned on a salary-percentage basis (f_pT_B) and the other assigned on a constant-dollar basis (f_dT_B), where f_p + f_d = 1.  The raise-pool distribution is then determined by three independent parameters: g_A, g_B, and f_d, with the other two determined by g_C = 1 - g_A - g_B and f_p = 1 - f_d.  The proposed values for these parameters, based on polling the opinions of the entire faculty last spring, are:

         g_A = 30%                               f_p = 30%

         g_B = 50%                               f_d = 70%

         g_C = 20 %

Part A and B raises for the ith faculty member are computed according to equations (1) and (2), respectively, and the Part C raise for the ith faculty member is assigned at the Head’s discretion.  The total raise for the ith faculty member is then given by: 

∆S_i=∆S_i^(A) +∆S_i^(B) +∆S_i^(C)

VI. Policy Review

This policy must be reviewed by a departmental faculty committee assigned by the Head every three (3) years in order to assess its effectiveness and make rec ommendations for its improvement. Proposed changes must be voted on by the standing faculty (including both tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty) in a general faculty meeting, and will be adopted if approved by a simple majority of votes cast (exclusive of abstentions). Between formal policy reviews, the Head may propose that the faculty consider policy amendments that he/she feels are warranted, and these amendments will be adopted if approved by a simple ma jority of votes cast (exclusive of abstentions).

Appendix: Merit Points

[Note: Unless specifically stated, merit points are awarded for activities and achieve ments that were completed during the calendar year (CY) under review.]

I. Teaching

I.A. Regular course credit hours taught

Let n = # of credit hours taught in Spring and Fall semesters of CY under review, excluding seminars, student research hours, and the like.

MP = 6⋅n

I.B. Seminar course credit hours organized

Let n = # of credit hours of seminar courses organized (excluding FYOS) in Spring and Fall semesters of CY under review.

MP = 3⋅n

I.C. Evidence of exceptional classroom teaching

If student evaluations (both numerical and narrative) or other indicators are judged by the Head to indicate superior teaching, then merit points may be awarded for teaching excellence.

MP = 0-20 (Head’s discretion)

I.D. Major curriculum development

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: development of new courses, major restructuring of existing courses, implementation of major new instructional technologies or course components, etc.

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

I.E. Mentorship of students and postdocs in research/scholarship

For each individual mentored (undergraduate, graduate student, or postdoc), i, let m_i = # of calendar months mentored, and f_i = fraction of that mentorship credited to the faculty member. Let n = ∑_i f_i⋅m_i/12.

MP = 6⋅n

I.F. Honors, prizes, awards, or other recognition associated with teaching

MP = 0-50 each (Head’s discretion)

I.G. Miscellaneous meritorious achievements in teaching

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

II. Research/Scholarship

II.A.

Publications and citations

II.A.1. Peer-reviewed articles

Let p = # of publications in designated very-high-prestige journals and n = # of publications in other peer-reviewed journals.

MP = 5⋅(n + 3p)

II.A.2. Other scholarly publications

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: mono graphs, book chapters, book editing, book reviews, manuals, text books, and other published educational materials.

MP = 0-25 per item (Head’s discretion)

II.A.3. Non-author citations to published work

Let n = # of new non-author citations to any scholarly publication in the faculty member’s vita, and y = # of years since the faculty member’s Ph.D., rounded to the nearest year.

MP = min(25, 0.5⋅n/y^1/2)

II.B. Expenditure of Competitively Awarded Funds (i.e., Contracts and Grants)

II.B.1. External

Let x = sum of all expenditures from external funds credited to the faculty member.

MP = 25⋅[x/$50k]^1/2

II.B.2. Internal

Let x = sum of all expenditures from internal funds credited to the faculty member.

MP = x/$5k

II.B.3. Proposal Submission

Let p = sum of all regular full-length (e.g., NSF, NIH, NASA, DoE, etc.) proposals submitted by a faculty member as the PI and declined in the CY.

Let n = sum of all short proposals submitted by a faculty member as the PI and full-length proposals as Co-I, and declined in the CY.

MP = 5p + 2n

II.C. Student Support

Let x = sum of all expenditures from all sources credited to the faculty member for student support (both graduate and undergraduate), and let x₁ = cost of supporting one graduate student at the Ph.D. rate at a level of 44.4% (i.e., 4 ninths) for the entire CY under review.

MP = 8x/x₁

II.D. Competitively awarded use of external research facilities

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: supercomputer centers, ground or space-based telescopes, probe sources (e.g., Advanced Light Source, Spallation Neutron Source), etc. Merit-point requests should be based on the size of the allocation relative to total resources allocated by the facility (or consortium). Justifications must be provided.

II.D.1. Small allocation MP = 4 each

II.D.2. Medium allocation MP = 8 each

II.D.3. Large allocation MP = 12 each

II.D.4. Exceptionally large allocation MP = 15 each

II.E. Invited presentations

II.E.1. Major conferences/workshops MP = 8 each

II.E.2. Minor conferences/workshops MP = 4 each

II.E.3. Extramural colloquia/seminars MP = 2 each

II.F. Major development of new research techniques/tools/apparatuses

To warrant merit points, new techniques/tools/apparatuses should have potential for broad adoption in the wider research community. The faculty member should provide a brief justification for such a claim. At the faculty member’s discretion, request for merit points may be in the year of devel opment or in any one year of adoption by other researchers, but not both. MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

II.G. Honors, prizes, awards, or other recognition associated with scholarship

A non-exhaustive list of items categorized as "other recognition" includes: patents, press releases, interviews, profiles in professional magazines, etc. MP = 0-50 each (Head’s discretion)

II.H. Journal editorships

II.H.1. Editor-in-chief MP = 10 each

II.H.2. Subordinateeditor MP = 5 each

II.I. Major activities associated with conference organization

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: main organizer, program committee member, session organizer, proceedings editor, etc. MP = 0-15 each (Head’s discretion)

II.J. Miscellaneous meritorious achievements in research/scholarship

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

III. Service

III.A. Service to the department

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: minor committee work, major committee work, committee chair, administrative duties, etc. MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

III.B. Service to the college and/or university

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: minor committee work, major committee work, committee chair, faculty governance, etc. MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

III.C. Service to the profession

A non-exhaustive list of items in this category includes: professional society councilor or officer, user facility board member, program advisory board member, external program reviewer, grant review panelist, signifi cant other peer review (lumped as one item), etc.

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

III.D. Service and outreach to the public

Since service and outreach to the public comes in diverse and unpredictable forms, no attempt will be made here to provide a sample listing.

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

III.E. Miscellaneous meritorious achievements in service

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)

IV. Miscellaneous other meritorious achievements

MP = 0-20 each (Head’s discretion)