CLEVELAND
Kent State University is offering financial bonuses to professors if they help student retention numbers and attract more research dollars, an incentive usually given to school presidents and top administrators.
Beginning this semester, 864 faculty members at Kent State stand to gain from a “success pool” if university goals are met for student retention and landing research grants and foundation money. The university, about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland, has eight campuses and 34,000 students.
“This is America. We live in a country that suggests extra effort should be rewarded,” Kent State President Lester A. Lefton said Tuesday.
Professors would share 10 percent of the growth in research dollars and 2 percent of growth in fundraising beyond threshold levels. Payments split equally among the faculty could total several hundred dollars per faculty member for double-digits gains.
Professors would share 40 percent of additional revenue when the freshman retention rate goes up 0.5 percent on the main campus.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, which follows campus trends across the country, called the goal-based incentive plan a new and unusual tactic. Kent State and faculty union leaders knew of no similar programs elsewhere.
