October 11, 2010

Deans and Department Chairs,

A checklist may now be used for Assistant Professor first merit cases after appointment. The checklist is available at: Asst_Prof_merit_checklist_form.doc

Important points:

• The checklist will replace the currently required departmental recommendation letter or dean's letter in professional schools.
• A checklist submission may be used only for faculty in the Assistant Professor title and it may be used only when the recommended action in a one-step merit increase. This procedure does not apply to untenured faculty who are appointed as "Acting" in the Associate or Professor titles.
• Deans in Colleges may simply concur with the checklist assessments or they may provide additional comments.
• The personnel action will receive an expedited review by the BC and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Welfare.
• Feedback letters will be issued by the Vice Provost and need not be prepared in the deans' offices.

In addition, we will realign Assistant Professors' merit cycles, if needed, at the time of their mid-career reviews:

• If an Assistant Professor’s tenure clock and merit/reappointment cycles become out-of-sync due to a clock stoppage, the merit/reappointment cycle will be “reset” at the time of the mid-career appraisal (i.e. he/she will be given a new two-year reappointment—which is current campus practice, and receive a merit increase if warranted. Since such cases will be only one year since the last review, a ½ step increase would be the normal merit increment).
• This change is designed to eliminate the need for additional personnel actions in the period between the mid-career and final appraisals. It will not apply to Acting Professors in the School of Law whose normal cycle of merit review (three years in step) does not harmonize with the APM schedules for the appointment of untenured faculty and for mid-career and final appraisals.

  Assistant Professors with no clock stoppages will undergo three personnel actions and reviews: an expedited checklist merit review for their first review after appointment (3rd semester); a mid-career appraisal (7th semester); and a final appraisal (11th semester).

  The checklist submission and resetting the merit/reappointment cycle at the time of the mid-career appraisal do not signal any change in campus policy or practice concerning the submission of promotion cases in advance of the relevant deadline for final appraisals.

Sheldon Zedeck
Vice Provost
Academic Affairs & Faculty Welfare