
Communications | Appointment and Advancement
Academic Personnel Updates Related to the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis for Senate Faculty
March 26, 2020
VIA EMAIL
To: Deans and Department Chairs
From: Lori Kletzer, Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Lynn Westerkamp, Chair, Committee on Academic Personnel
Re: Academic Personnel Updates Related to the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis for Senate Faculty
As we all work through the implications of the COVID-19 public health crisis, we write to provide guidance regarding a number of matters that impact faculty. The situation continues to evolve on a daily basis and we appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through various areas of concern.
Winter 2020 and Spring 2020 Student Experience of Teaching (SET) Surveys
SET surveys will occur as regularly planned. We know that SETs response rates have been low this winter quarter, and it is possible that the SETs may be negatively impacted by the need to move to remote instruction and learning, but we believe they may still provide valuable feedback for instructors. The academic personnel review process already requires more than one source of evidence of teaching effectiveness, and we encourage departments to consider evidence other than SETs as primary sources for evaluation of teaching effectiveness. The opinions of students should be given due consideration, together with other sources of evidence. In their personal statements, faculty can self-evaluate their teaching and contextualize their class experiences. We also encourage faculty to document the steps they have taken to transition courses to using remote platforms in their self-statements which can provide additional feedback to reviewing bodies. As always, all levels of review, starting with the department, to CAP, deans, and other deciding authorities, will situate SET feedback in the proper context given the extreme challenges faced by instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Extension of the 8-year Clock: Assistant Professors, Assistant Teaching Professors (LPSOE)
An Assistant Professor or Assistant Teaching Professor (Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment) may request an extension of the tenure/SOE limit clock. APM 133-17 allows for extensions of the clock in cases of a “significant circumstance or event beyond the individual’s control that disrupts an individual’s ability to pursue his or her duties.” Extensions must be requested before the tenure/SOE review begins.
An Assistant Professor or Teaching Professor who does not request a clock extension will not be penalized for a reduction in duties during the duration of the COVID-19 crisis (see below for further detail on advancement reviews.)
A request to stop the clock must be submitted by email, via the Department Chair and Dean, to the Academic Personnel Office. The chancellor will approve clock extensions of up to three quarters for faculty whose research, teaching, and/or service has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 situation. Extensions only change the latest deadline by which a tenure/SOE review must begin; faculty may still choose to come up for tenure at the normal time.
Faculty Merit & Promotion Reviews
We understand the concerns about the possible negative impact on scholarly academic activity during the Spring quarter and perhaps into the future.
As in all advancement cases, departments should provide the context for any periods of reduced activity. In the case of COVID-19 related ramp-down in research, disrupted teaching, reduction in professional activities, or any similar delays, the department should indicate that the anomalies in the record were due to the COVID-19 prevention measures implemented by the University. Faculty should list papers accepted for conferences that have been canceled due to COVID-19 or similar disrupted activities on their bio-bibliographies with an explanatory note. External reviewer solicitation letters should include a reminder that the review period coincided with the COVID-19 crisis. Personal statements prepared for internal and external reviewers may likewise include more specific information about the COVID-19 impact on research, teaching, and service.
Departmental personnel committees, chairs, deans, and CAP will take all of these factors under consideration when reviewing cases that cover this time period. Reviewing committees and decision makers will in no way hold reduced activities and productivity that are a direct result of the COVID-19 situation against a faculty member or other academic employee during a merit or promotion review.
Reviews for faculty and other academic employees currently in progress for a July 1, 2020 effective date will continue to be processed using DivData online review. It is likely that some decision announcements may be delayed, but all resulting rank, step, and salary increases will be effective retroactive to July 1, 2020.
Recruitments and New Appointments
Search report approvals and appointment cases will continue to be processed online via UC Recruit and DivData.
Equal opportunity best practices say that all interviewees should be interviewed in the same manner whenever possible. If interviews have not yet started, it is best to be consistent across candidates and to conduct all interviews for your search via the same format.
If faculty interviews are in progress and some candidates have already visited in-person while others are unable to visit, the department should proceed using a remote interview format (Zoom, Skype, etc). Departments should make every effort to adhere to the approved search plan by proceeding with the same or similar activities via teleconference as were, or would have been, offered to in-person interviewees. Campus attendees to any interviews, seminars, job talks or meetings should also be given the option to attend remotely.
In advance, the committee should confirm that all candidates have access to a computer, internet, and Zoom or other teleconferencing platform. Provide candidates with a description of the talk or interview format, and an itinerary that includes a schedule of their virtual interviews and presentations, as well as any announcements for job talks or presentations (as applicable). They should have a few scheduled breaks between interviews in order to pace the day
and for their own comfort, just as they would if they were on campus.
Adopt a standard for all job talks with clear guidance for length of time and use of visual aids, and communicate it to the candidates. A committee member should moderate remote question and answer sessions during the job talk.
Sabbatical Leave Cancellations
Faculty with sabbatical or other research leaves planned for Spring quarter may need to cancel the leave due to restrictions on travel or limits of ability to conduct research. It is likely too late to assign formal teaching responsibilities for Spring quarter; however, it is expected the faculty who cancel a spring sabbatical will be fully engaged in their University duties to the extent possible, given the current situation. A request to cancel sabbatical may be submitted by email to the Dean via the department Chair. Sabbatical credits will be fully refunded for cancelled sabbatical leaves.
Administrative Leave
President Napolitano has issued an executive order providing up to 16 days or 128 hours of paid administrative leave for all employees for the following purposes:
- When an employee is unable to work due to the employee’s own COVID-19-related illness or that of a family member;
- When an employee is unable to work because the employee has been directed not to come to the worksite for COVID-19-related reasons and/or the work site has implemented a COVID-19-related remote-work program or is under a shelter in place order and it is not operationally feasible for the employee to work remotely;
- When an employee is unable to work because a COVID-19 related school or daycare closure requires the employee to be home with a child or dependent, and it is not operationally feasible for the employee to work remotely or in conjunction with the childcare commitment.
The continuity of instruction is an essential function of the university. Administrative leave is subject to the approval of the department chair, and chairs are expected to make alternate arrangements for instruction before approving administrative leave for a faculty member. In addition, eligible faculty may use paid medical leave allotments under APM 710-11 to receive pay during an extended absence for their own illness or a family member’s illness. If faculty or department chairs have immediate questions about the executive order or wish to apply for extended leave, please contact the Divisional Academic Personnel Coordinator.
Spring 2020 Department Meetings
Many departments have already completed the bulk of academic personnel actions for the academic year, and are beginning to look ahead to beginning actions effective July 1, 2021.
Striving for “social caring through safe distancing”, a term coined by UCLA Vice Chancellor Jerry Kang (see: https://equity.ucla.edu/crosscheck/covid-19-whats-in-a-name/), while still assuring that Academic Senate faculty effectively engage in shared governance and maintain confidentiality, is difficult, but not impossible. In order to do so, we recommend that departments engage in the following practices for academic personnel meetings in the Spring
quarter:
- Follow standard departmental timelines for review of dossiers, voting, and departmental letters.
- Utilize DivData (not email) for departmental review, and for submission of materials to the Dean’s office.
- Do not download, save, or reproduce images of any of the materials in the dossier.
- Utilize Zoom (or other videoconferencing platform) to hold departmental meetings. Webcams must be turned on so faculty are clearly identifiable when speaking. Attendance will be taken (but not maintained in the personnel dossier) by verbal acknowledgment.
- Faculty meeting attendees should strive to ensure they are in a location where no one without voting rights or permission to attend will come in during the meeting.
- Do not record the meeting, outside of any usual departmental practices of individual note taking to inform participation in the discussion of the case.
- Revised protocols for remote faculty meetings during the COVID-19 restrictions should be discussed and agreed upon in advance by the voting faculty of the department.
We appreciate your understanding during this time. If there are any questions, please contact the Academic Personnel Office at apo@ucsc.edu.
cc:
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Lee
Assistant Vice Provost- Academic Personnel McClintock
APO Analysts
Divisional Academic Personnel Coordinators
Department Managers
Academic Senate Chair Lau
Academic Senate Director Mednick
Senate Analyst Silva-Espinoza