MAY 27, 2025 — Editor’s note: The following message was sent today via email from Veronica Salazar, executive vice president for Business Affairs and chief enterprise development officer and Heather Shipley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, to all faculty and staff:
As the spring semester comes to a close, we want to share updates on our ongoing comprehensive strategic plan to provide competitive compensation packages for faculty and staff at UTSA. Compensation remains at the forefront of our priorities as we continue to focus on ensuring we are an innovative place to work, learn and discover.
Last year, we launched a study led by People Excellence to determine that staff compensation packages are reflective of the value our talented teams bring to the institution. Concurrently, Academic Affairs led a review of faculty. Several important factors led to these studies. Key drivers included:
- Pay structures in need of updates and consistency
- A high volume of requests for staff reclassifications
- The need to provide competitive salaries to retain talented employees
Over the last year, we have made significant progress in our staff and faculty reviews, and we are pleased to share our current status and next steps with you.
Staff Updates
The broad scope of the staff compensation study included a wide variety of important considerations, including reviewing job frameworks, pay structures and job descriptions across staff positions, in addition to conducting market analysis. The compensation study team is developing proposed compensation guidelines and best practices which the university plans to use to assess future strategic compensation investments as well as potential staff title review and consolidation.
Faculty Updates
The faculty review builds on the work we have done in recent years for both fixed-term track (FTT) and tenured/tenure-track (T/TT) faculty compensation, including P&T increases, CPE increases, market retention for T/TT and addressing faculty titles and pay scales for FTT. The FTT study examined pay minimums using benchmarks from local to national levels and focused on faculty at 50% FTE or greater. The study also considered structural models to better support faculty advancement. Our study extended to T/TT faculty using CUPA data of the median salary for R1 institutions. This comprehensive approach reflects our commitment to valuing faculty contributions and supporting a strong academic workforce that advances UTSA’s mission.
Next Steps
Next steps in the compensation study will include evaluation of the university’s strategic investments during the FY26 budget planning cycle, as referenced in President Eighmy’s email on March 26, 2025. Faculty and staff recommendations will be based upon collaboration with senior leadership. As compensation guidelines are determined and finalized, we will continue to share updates with you.
As always, we are deeply appreciative for your service to the UTSA community and remain committed to evaluating compensation and benefit data to retain our talented faculty and staff.
