Policy on Setting Salaries (Revised 2006)

Policy on Setting Salaries (Revised 2006)

1. The Budget Office of the College will comply with the policy of the University Faculty Council Principles Guiding Faculty and Librarian Salary Policy 4/25/89 and the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University Faculty/Librarian Salary Policy 10/17/89.
   This policy reaffirms the primacy of merit in setting salaries but also specifies that the BFC Budgetary Affairs Committee will make recommendations concerning cost of living and fixed dollar increments.
2. The College's elected Policy Committee will serve as the Dean's consultative committee as required by UFC policy. The Policy Committee and the Dean's staff will make sure that each department or program in the College has, and makes use of, a consultative committee to advise the unit's responsible administrator regarding the allocation of resources. Such a committee should be fully elected for a limited term by the unit's faculty unless another method is approved, on petition, by the College Policy Committee.
3. Except for funds that the Dean must allocate to prevent the loss of outstanding faculty, to make equity adjustments, and to provide increments to promoted faculty members, the College will follow the BFC Budgetary Affairs Committee's recommendations for cost-of-living and/or fixed dollar increments. The same holds for the ratios used in the allocation of salary funds among units at the campus and school level set out in section IV of the University Faculty/Librarian Salary Policy.
4. To perform its duties effectively, the College Policy Committee needs to be apprised of the basis and process by which the College office makes budget allocations to departments and programs. The Committee should receive from the Dean summary data on such allocations, and should such allocations exceed the acceptable differential set out in sections IV.A and IV.B of the University Faculty/Librarian Salary Policy, the Dean will discuss the rationale for such exceptions with the Policy Committee.
5. Application of the merit principle to departments, programs, and faculty members of the College is bound to vary somewhat from unit to unit; but each unit should stipulate clearly in writing how merit is defined for and applied to its faculty, and these should be periodically reviewed. Given the emphasis on research and creative activity as a prime component of merit, decisions must also affirm concretely the College's declared commitment to teaching excellence by making the evaluation of teaching a significant factor in determining individual faculty salaries. See also the College "Policy on Determining Annual Salary Merit Increases (2004; Revised 2006)" and the College "Policy on the Evaluation of Pedagogical Practices (1998; Revised 2018)."
6. In disbursing funds, departments should have a great deal of flexibility in deciding how such funds should be spent, subject to the restriction that funds for salary increments to faculty and associate instructors should not be diverted to other uses.
7. Periodically the College Policy Committee will review the substance and implementation of items 1-6.