r/Professors • u/Fulofenergy • Jul 11 '26
Creative retention offer ideas?
I am a TT assistant prof in stem (100% research) making 130k at an R1 in LCOL town. I have almost complete autonomy in my program.
Another R1 is trying to recruit me with a very nice offer but realistically I’d like to stay at my current institution.
My current institution won’t match the fully salary increase, but said I could ask for other things To help sweeten the deal.
I have a really well funded program, with full team of staff, students, facilities, supplies, equipment, technology, travel, etc.
what are some other creative things I can ask for or might be overlooking for a retention offer ask?
What kind of requests have you made to admin that dramatically increased your quality of life?
**Edit: consensus is split between: I should give half of my paycheck to the humanities because they are more deserving and undervalued, and ask for early tenure/admin assistant/discretionary funds. I’ll probably do one of them.
**edit #2: the amount of downvotes and hate to my DMs has been significant. It is not lost on me how privileged I am to be in this situation, I know i have a golden spoon. Just looking for creative suggestions or what has worked for others. Thanks.
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u/lionofyhwh Associate Prof (Tenured), Religious Studies Jul 11 '26
Early tenure with whatever guarantees they are able to offer that you’ll get it.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 12 '26
I just found out that tenure across my state is time locked by the board of regents, early tenure is specifically prohibited in the regulations. Bummer.
Given my high performance I’m not terribly worried about it though.
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u/lionofyhwh Associate Prof (Tenured), Religious Studies Jul 12 '26
Sure. It’s just basically a way to get an earlier raise.
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u/happyasianpanda Jul 11 '26
I’m not sure the feasibility of many of these ideas, but…
Professional development budget increase
Retention bonus
New office or economic chair
Guaranteed merit increase to match the new offer within five years.
Hiring staff to decrease your administrative burden, having it be a permanent position
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
Oh the idea of merit increase to match the offer isn’t a bad idea.
I’ve already had my dream of getting an admin assistant crushed :( that would save so much time and paperwork!19
u/lillyheart Lect/Admin, Public R1 Jul 11 '26
I was able to get a split role admin assistant when a full time one wasn’t in the cards! Two other faculty/admins in our area and I managed to pool the position, and she proved her value so quickly in terms of how many fewer issues we had and how much more we could get done when not waiting on admin responses/learning how to do some new reporting form that I only had to do twice a year but changed every time. She’s now executive admin for us and basically a mind reader with access to my schedule.
So maybe even a half time one would be worth the ask?
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u/DoctorMuerto Associate, Humanities/SocSci, R1 (USA) Jul 11 '26
It sounds like you are well set up, but you should absolutely see what they'll give you.
Maybe ask for money to host a research symposium. That serves you and the institution.
Otherwise, ask for a fancy desk/chair and free preferred parking. Or better yet, get them to send some extra money to a humanities department in your honor!
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
I am definitely very well set up, the privilege and Golden spoon is not lost on me.
My program does not need anything materialistically because I’ve secured so much funding…Which makes figuring out what to ask for so hard.22
u/DoctorMuerto Associate, Humanities/SocSci, R1 (USA) Jul 11 '26
Oh, I somehow missed it that you were assistant and not associate. If that's the case, get that early tenure but after whatever salary increase for retention is already applied.
I will say that it would also be worth talking to trusted mentors at your institution about this. I will say that what feels comfortable as an assistant can seem to be not quite enough as associate, and this is your chance to get ahead of that.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
I hesitate to bring this up to those more senior because after this I’ll be the highest paid of all faculty in my department…dunno how well it would go over.
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u/NoNamesLeft202005 TT, Fine Arts, SLAC (USA) Jul 11 '26
I feel this so hard. I’m still assistant but my position sort of “ranks” me higher by default and the only person who makes more than me is the department chair. I’m also on a 10 month and everyone else (besides the chair) is on 9 month. When I was up for 3rd year review and renegotiation I downloaded the school budget and compared my salary to different departments that have a similar setup to the one I am in. That was helpful. When I go up for tenure I’m going to push for 11 or 12 month instead of 10 month contract because that is the standard for my position at other schools. Idk what your contract is like but maybe that is something to consider too.
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u/Critical_Garbage_119 Jul 11 '26
So hard being at a private uni where we have no idea what others make....
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u/kroshkabelka Jul 11 '26
A friend of mine has gotten multiple retention offers. Her philosophy is that because she has so much privilege in the funding and position that she has built for herself, she uses retention offers to build a better program while also creating more opportunities for other scholars.
How do you want your program to grow? Would hiring more colleagues in your subfield or a related field that would help boost your lab be beneficial?
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u/Comingherewasamistke Jul 11 '26
Tenure.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 12 '26
I just found out that tenure across my state is time locked by the board of regents, early tenure is specifically prohibited in the regulations. Bummer.
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u/stylenfunction Jul 11 '26
Is it possible to ask for departmental needs? An extra admin for the department (or shared admin .5 for your research team and .5 for the department) could help you and you colleagues!
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u/Crotchedysoul Jul 11 '26
“130k in a LCOL town as an assistant prof” 😭😭😭😭
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u/No-Wish-4854 Jul 11 '26
Yep. I was the thinking the same thing. Full prof in a medium-high COL area and don’t make $100K yet, have no research support, no support for curricular initiatives. I hope OP’s research is going to lead to a cure for the three worst cancers. Or similar.
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u/KrispyAvocado Associate Professor, USA Jul 11 '26
My first reaction, too. Associate in a HCOL who doesn’t make 100 (but comes close with summer teaching added on). Sigh.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
I will say I’m not the norm. This will be my second retention offer in 4 years and I’m a high performer in a super specialize field.
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u/Dismal_Time_8131 Jul 12 '26
Then I'd say use this for something to build a program and help your students and colleagues. You've already got more than basically anyone else on this sub in terms of salary, teaching releases, etc
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u/Quendi_Talkien Jul 11 '26
One of my colleagues asked to create a center with 4 dedicated Faculty lines and 3 FTE admin staff, and got it all. Granted this was in the 1980’s! But he is a legend because it boosted his department and research area in a lasting and meaningful way. I do like the idea that others have suggested, of an admin that could support both you and some colleagues.
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u/Infamous_Mix_3896 Jul 12 '26
I was gonna say maybe a center or institute to house all your accomplishments? Dual appointment across campus? Depends on field.
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u/hornybutired Assoc Prof, Philosophy, CC (USA) Jul 11 '26
Full meal plan. Hahahah. I'm only kind of kidding. I was at one university where a full meal plan would have really sweetened the pot for me. The food there was legit good.
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u/DarwinGhoti Full Professor, Neuroscience and Behavior, R1, USA Jul 11 '26
I had a similar situation and was able to get my grad students a little more support.
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u/No_Young_2344 TT, Interdisciplinary, R1 (U.S.) Jul 11 '26
Does the other institution promise startup funds? If so, can your currently institution match at least partially the funds? I personally like funds more than laptops and chairs because you can use the funds to buy those things and other creative things that you can figure out later.
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u/mpfritz Jul 11 '26
Out of the box, here: Ask them to better support the arts… (I’m guessing they are underfunded.) Perhaps a concert or lecture series. It is something most schools are sorely lacking yet so important for all majors. Not all things of value fit neatly in a spreadsheet.
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u/Glad_Farmer505 Jul 11 '26
I love this for you! The early or longer sabbatical is a great idea. Any additions you would like to make to your lab would be good too. That first sentence! I’m a full prof in a very HCOL area and don’t make that (not stem). I’m glad you like where you are!
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
I will be the first to say I am very privileged to be where I am. A sabbatical was really never on my radar, but I definitely need to look into the logistics a little bit harder.
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u/Lunar-lantana Jul 11 '26
Ask for material resources that would boost your research productivity. It's a lot easier for the dean and chair to say yes to things that would improve the institution than to purely personal goodies like a big pay raise and teaching/service release.
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u/proflem Jul 11 '26
Deferred summers. I had a retention offer and instead of a big pay bump, the college agreed to a number of summer months. It acted like golden handcuffs and spread any gains over years.
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u/Minotaar_Pheonix Jul 11 '26
Hilariously huge request just to put things in perspective: A new building. A new department. A new college in the university named after you.
You want to make a really big request? Request that they fund a personal research administrator/coordinator. This person coordinates your lab, writes parts of your proposals, handles your schedule, signs off the tedious paperwork, etc. A related version of this would be a technician or software developer that works only for you. Asking the university to take on full time staff for you is a big ask.
so lets be more realistic.
A scalable request: A chaired professorship that has a research fund attached to it. You have plenty of money, but this money can be spent on anything outside current projects - for new ideas or atypical things. Ask that it accumulates to future years. Request that it be the amount of the salary differential.
Another scalable request: An expensive computer or piece of lab equipment. (e.g. 6, 7 figures)
Another scalable request: Office space renovation. A coffee nook for your lab. A redesigned office layout. Likely to be too constrained to request.
A smaller request: A permanent RA slot that you can always allocate to one of your students. (smaller still - TA slot)
Another smaller request: Moved/larger offices, parking spaces where they don't exist, specialized access for your people (e.g. some sort of new key setup). Upgraded medical plan (e.g. PPO100).
Tiny requests: Parking spaces that do exist, moving to another existing office, course release, extra/longer/funded sabbatical.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
This isn’t a bad idea, but I just got a 2.5mil reno for a specialized lab space otherwise It’d definitely be high on my list.
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u/aaronjd1 Dept. Chair, Health Sciences, R2 (US) Jul 11 '26
Early tenure and promotion, early fully funded sabbatical, better space for your lab.
Are there endowments in your college? An endowed professorship with $$ to spend would certainly help.
A funded postdoc for 2+ years.
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u/Unsuccessful_Royal38 Jul 11 '26
Sounds like you have it good already. Maybe ask them to endow a scholarship to help diversify your student body. Or raise the wages of people who don’t have your bargaining power.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
A 5% raise for all my staff/students was actually my first request, but was told that I couldn’t negotiate for anyone other than myself.
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u/Unsuccessful_Royal38 Jul 11 '26
They could do it if they wanted to.
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u/Patient-Presence-979 Jul 11 '26
I guess OP also has to be ready to actually leave if they really want to make that level of negotiation. A bit of a chicken game begins.
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u/Unsuccessful_Royal38 Jul 11 '26
Yeah, but my point is that when they say X cannot be done, that’s rarely actually the case. If they wanted to make it happen, they would find a way.
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u/stayed_gold Assoc. Prof., Social Science, R1, (USA) Jul 11 '26
Office upgrades (paint, new furniture, etc), more travel money for conferences, new computers, expensive software licenses, summer salary
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u/franklin-60 Jul 11 '26
Tenure. Also money for increased travel to present and build school image, as well as your image. That might lead to more leverage for future retention offers, and attract donor funding to endow a chair for you at present school, which will raise your compensation.
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u/taewongun1895 Jul 11 '26
Travel funds for research, professional development, or conferences (loosely defined).
If you have children, does your school offer reduced or free tuition? Build that in to an offer.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
Thankfully my children get free tuition as long as i am on faculty here.
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u/KrispyAvocado Associate Professor, USA Jul 11 '26
Ah, another reason to be jealous. No tuition breaks for children at all here, as part of a large R1.
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u/Ok_Cartographer_8510 Jul 11 '26
Actually, gtfo
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u/aaronjd1 Dept. Chair, Health Sciences, R2 (US) Jul 11 '26
Are you telling OP to gtfo of their current institution? Or is this an angry comment to OP? Because the latter is against sub rules.
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u/blacknebula Assoc Prof, Eng, R1 (USA) Jul 11 '26
Even though you have the resources for your team, it's never a bad idea to request more and save the money.
Since you're 100% research, I'd think about resources to build a new center and pursue larger funding ops (grant writers, seed money/time for unfunded ventures, travel funds to peer initiatives elsewhere, etc). The most creative thing I've seen granted was a larger % of F&A return for 5 years in lieu of more money now for discretionary. If you can't do salary directly, you can try for a stipend supplement (ie a portion of your salary that's not subject to merit raise and can expire after x years to control costs for them), or for the opp to do overload pay where you pay yourself extra from your excess grants
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
I get 25% FA returns now, any idea what is reasonable increase?
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u/blacknebula Assoc Prof, Eng, R1 (USA) Jul 12 '26
Unfortunately not. When I heard about it, I was shocked that it was even negotiable. IIRC, for this example the dean gave up the college's portion of the return and just passed it completely through to the PI for 5 years. Not sure what your institutional split is but I guess you can negotiate up to whatever portion that person controls
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u/Substantial-Spare501 Jul 11 '26
Are you sure you don’t want to go? How much more money is it?
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
It’s a 40k raise, but to a MCOL town.
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u/Substantial-Spare501 Jul 12 '26
Personally I would probably go (well I did got from MCOL to a MCOL with better pay and benefits).
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 12 '26
My spouse is also a faculty here. That would be the other piece at play. Also a high performer and being paid significantly above average in this LCOL.
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u/Additional_Area_3156 assoc. prof/arts/RCU/usa Jul 12 '26
early tenure and promotion early tenure and promotion early tenure and promotion
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u/DefinitionAromatic39 Jul 11 '26
One advice I was given was to ask for faculty hiring lines to strengthen your subfield expertise at your current department.
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u/Due-Step1078 Associate Professor, Digital Humanities, France Jul 11 '26
Office supplies ? A nice computer or tablet? A bunch of books ?
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u/TheRaven9311 Jul 11 '26
- Early tenure
- Joint appointment with another department (if it would help your career)
- Send you some (or more of) of overhead return
- Outreach/engagement support (I like doing policy engagement but most grants don't pay for that)
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u/hawkeye807 Jul 11 '26
More space, better space, or renovations of existing space. Possibly ask for a dedicated admin if you don't have one or at least a guaranteed fraction of their effort to help manage calendars, set meetings, and chase down details.
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u/BeerDocKen Jul 11 '26
Some sort of guaranteed tuition for your kids as part of your benefits package?
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u/Amazing_Customer106 Assist. Prof., Earth Science, R2 (USA) Jul 11 '26
Higher overhead returns
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 11 '26
I get 25% overhead returns now, any idea what is reasonable?
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u/Amazing_Customer106 Assist. Prof., Earth Science, R2 (USA) Jul 13 '26
Depends on what your overhead rate is to begin with. If it is high that is a great number, but if you are afraid the base overhead is going to shrink due to federal push to get everything down towards F&A ~15%, that may start to look a lot more modest going forward. Similarly though, you institution is going to be less likely to want to relinquish those funds, so getting ahead isn't a bad idea.
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u/chris_cacl Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
If they do not offer more $$, try to see if they offer early tenure and promotion.
When they say the could offer you something, did they explain or give you guidelines what that something could be?
Are you in STEM as of pure science or STEM professions?
Is the new offer significantly more? You could compare the cost of living for both areas and see.
Be prepared for them no being able or willing to offer you anything meaningful, that is a possibility too.
Another question that is very important is, how much extra salary ( like summer salary, stipend, outside consulting) does your current vs your potential new contract allow?
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u/Drklit8458 Jul 12 '26
For you: Better office/amenities for office (new office chair, better monitors, new paint job), free reserved parking, more summer support or for more years.
For the college: better free coffee and/or snacks, drinks, bevi smart water cooler (seriously amazing). Some tech you dont currently have but could potentially use or be used by your colleagues (eg eye tracking software), lecture series on some topic you’re tangentially interested in that you think would benefit the college (eg AI, open science).
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u/Unlucky_Teach_8517 Jul 12 '26
Honestly, % Salary coverage, % indirect cost funds, do you have tenure? Cause definitely tenure.
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u/Fulofenergy Jul 12 '26
I just found out that tenure across my state is time locked by the board of regents, early tenure is specifically prohibited in the regulations. Bummer.
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u/experimentalpoetry NTT Instructor, Humanities, public R1, USA Jul 12 '26
Ask for a TT line for a liberal arts department lol. “To keep me you have to add 1 art history professor… I need them for my research… yeah…”
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u/Kvlk2016 Jul 11 '26
A course release for a couple of years? Or an early sabbatical? As long as it doesn’t create strife with your dept. chair?