Effective July 1, 2022, the raise for promotion to tenured associate professor at CU Boulder will increase from $2,000 to $6,500, while the raise for promotion to full professor will increase from $3,000 to $10,500. The raises will go into effect for faculty receiving promotions in the current cycle.

CU Provost Russell Moore said the Board of Regent’s approval of the fiscal year 2022–23 budget, including promotion and tenure raises, was a strategic move that reversed “more than a decade of these levels remaining flat.” He said the new promotion and tenure increases would not only benefit individual faculty but would “serve the entire academic mission at CU Boulder.”

“I want to thank the Board of Regents for ensuring our budget will put our promotion and tenure raises in line with our AAU peers. This is key to retaining our faculty and matching their commitment to CU Boulder, and that commitment, in turn, bolsters our research, teaching and service missions,” Moore said.

The increased raise amounts were recommended by CU Boulder’s Academic Affairs Budget Advisory Committee (AABAC), whose membership includes the BFA Budget and Planning Committee chair; a representative from each school, college and the University Libraries; an institute representative; and student representatives.

AABAC examined peer institutional promotion and tenure raise amounts and explored options for implementing increased raises while considering compression and equity impacts.

Moore said, going forward, the campus will build on AABAC’s recommendations and regularly adjust and review promotion and tenure raise amounts.

He acknowledged the increased raise amounts will help mitigate compression issues going forward but could in the near term exacerbate compression issues for faculty already tenured or promoted.

“With this in mind, we have compiled a modest compression pool that will be available to begin to address this effect, in partnership with schools and colleges,” said Moore.

He said more details on the compression pool and associated processes will be provided in the fall semester. He said the work of the Faculty Salary Procedures Working Group, announced in May, will also continue to address how unit salary procedures relate to compression issues.

The promotion and tenure raises join other recent campus compensation initiatives that include:

• Increasing stipends for graduate students on appointment
• Raising minimum salaries for teaching professors and clinical faculty
• Enhancing adjunct and lecturer compensation
• Implementing salary equity adjustments in compliance with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

“Increasing promotion and tenure raise amounts is one more important step as we seek to ensure our faculty salaries remain competitive, equitable and rewarding of faculty members’ outstanding teaching, research and creative work, and service,” Moore said.