Reason for Policy

To define and clarify the process and criteria for making a retention offer when a CAS faculty member is being actively recruited by another institution

Enactment & Revisions

Enacted: 04/25/2016

Revised: 05/27/2020

Policy Statement

Overview

When a faculty member in your unit is being actively recruited by another institution, the Department Head should notify the Divisional Dean as soon as possible.  Faculty who bring an outside offer to the Head, Dean and Provost must understand that applying for another job is a career move and should be prepared to accept the outside position.  In general, retention offers will be considered only for faculty members who are the institution’s top performers.

Any requests for a retention offer must be made through the appropriate department or unit where the faculty member has their tenure line.  Retention offer requests will be considered in the context of several elements related to scholarly performance and standing in the discipline:

• an official, written outside offer
• recruited faculty member’s sustained scholarly record
• outside offer compensation relative to compensation structure within the department (compensation includes such things as salary, start-up funds, research accounts, facilities, course releases, etc.). Offers for less compensation than UO compensation will not receive a retention offer.
• outside offer is from a peer or more prestigious institution – offers from non-comparable institutions will rarely be countered
• comparability of the position to the faculty member’s current position (for instance, an administrative position is not comparable to a research/teaching faculty position)
• cost of living differential between Eugene and outside offer location

Retention offers will also be considered in light of the full contribution of the faculty member to the department, college, and university through:

• performance within the department
• contributions to institutional equity and inclusion
• teaching contributions and success
• department, college, and university service quality and contributions

Departments must work closely with the Divisional Dean throughout the retention process, referring to the procedures outlined by the Office of the Provost at (http://academicaffairs.uoregon.edu/retention-salary-adjustments).  Retention offers approved by the Dean must be submitted to Office of the Provost with the “University of Oregon Retention Request Approval Form” for approval by the Provost.

Retention offers will be considered only for demonstrably outstanding scholars, and for an individual only once in a five-year period.

Salary Increase

If a salary increase is approved, the department is responsible for submitting the Payroll Request Form for the salary increase, in time to be processed by the effective date of the increase.