Dear Colleagues:   

Since my arrival as TXST president, one of my top priorities has been to recognize the exceptional work that you do by investing in salary increases, employee benefits, and additional positions. This is directly tied to achieving our Hopes & Aspirations High goal for TXST to become an employer of choice.

Today, I am pleased to announce more significant steps toward that goal.

We will invest an additional $21.25 million in our TXST employees for FY26. This investment breaks down along these lines:

• We have created a salary allocation pool of more than $9 million for eligible employees to be awarded at each divisional vice president’s discretion.
• The university has also allocated nearly $350,000 to raise the salaries of the remaining eligible employees who are currently paid below the relevant market minimums. These market-based adjustments are guided by the compensation study that we initiated in 2023, with the goal of bringing all employee salaries up to competitive levels.
• We have allocated approximately $1 million to create new staff positions.
• We have allocated approximately $1 million for new tenure-track faculty lines.
• We will maintain our commitment to funding University Longevity Pay and 7% faculty promotion raises, which will cost approximately $1.3 million this year.
• To account for the planned increase in our freshman class, we have allocated approximately $2 million to add 33 new instructional faculty FTE.
• To support our growing Round Rock Campus, we have allocated approximately $1.2 million for additional teaching capacity.
• Following through on the creation of the professor of instruction faculty classification last year, we have allocated $700,000 for the second round of 7% raises for those who achieved the rank of full Professor of Instruction.
• The University will fund $4.7 million to cover the cost of increases to the employer contributions for employee health insurance and other benefit costs in the coming fiscal year.

 As usual, most salary adjustments will be reflected in October 1, 2025, paychecks. Watch for additional details about implementation of the salary review process from our Office of Human Resources. I want to thank our Human Resources staff and the Budget Office for their hard work in developing the FY26 salary program.

These investments in you are well-deserved. They reflect our appreciation for your dedication to our students and for the level of quality education, service, and support that you provide to our university community.

Although we have made great strides in the past three years, please know that I am committed to maintaining our efforts to ensure that TXST remains an employer of choice. We have more to do, so let’s keep working together to continue making this a great place to serve, to learn, to discover, to live, and to thrive. I am so proud to serve alongside you. Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely,

Kelly Damphousse, Ph.D. 

President