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December 3, 2007
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Pay for Performance vote reveals true exercise in shared governance
On Dec. 5, the Board of Trustees (BOT) will decide whether to implement a new Pay for Performance (P4P) system where faculty could earn up to $10,000 above their salary. Before making their decision, they will hear from Faculty Senate President Hal Nees on how the faculty would like to move forward.
Under the College's shared governance system, faculty were asked to vote on whether they support the general P4P idea, and whether they believe faculty performance should be judged by department chairs, a college-wide P4P committee, or some combination of the two. The faculty vote resulted in a tie vote as to whether they support the P4P concept.
President Stephen Jordan sees the faculty participation as an "exercise in shared governance. Regardless of whether you choose to support or reject Pay for Performance, I believe that our conscientious exercise of shared governance in this process constitutes a great success that will benefit Metro State for years to come."
If approved by the BOT, the P4P system could be the first of its kind in the nation. Other colleges have some form of merit-based pay, but not on the scale that Metro State is considering. In the proposal under consideration, an amount equal to up to eight percent of faculty members' salaries and benefits could be used to reward yearly those faculty members who perform at a high level. Dr. Jordan and the BOT have set aside $2.1 million in the 2009 fiscal year for P4P system.
The first question in the three-part poll asked faculty if they support the Board of Trustees-supported concept of receiving non-base-building monetary increases for higher levels of performance. The vote came back 105 yes and 105 no.
The second question was nearly as close, with 98 faculty members saying they support the implementation of the P4P plan proposed by the P4P committee and 102 saying they do not support that particular plan.
The third question asked faculty to rank their preference for the three options of who would rank faculty as excellent, exceptional or extraordinary. The options offered were:
Option 1: only the College Pay for Performance Award Committee at all three levels
Option 2: excellent determined by the department chair or department committee
exceptional determined by the School P4P Award Committee
extraordinary determined by the College P4P Award CommitteeOption 3: only the department chair or department committee at all three levels
Option 3 received the most votes (97) as the preferred method, with Option 2 coming in second with 71 votes.
To read more about the proposed P4P system go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/article_1443.shtml.
