POLICY CONCERNING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FACULTY MERIT INCREASE

AND SERVICE SALARY STEP INCREASE PROGRAMS

 

FAM 585

 

 
FSD 99-02.R1

Faculty Affairs Committee
May 2000

2.1	The term "department" shall be used to refer to an academic department or equivalent unit for the purpose of this FMI policy. The three equivalent units shall be (a) coaches, (b) counselors, and (c) librarians. Each department or equivalent unit may have a "Department" FMI Committee. Individual instructional faculty unit employees in Undergraduate Studies shall be grouped with the academic department(s) most closely related to the discipline(s) they teach for the portion of their time base relevant to each department. Temporary faculty in a college teaching interdisciplinary courses and not assigned to a department shall make a permanent decision concerning with which department in the college they choose to be grouped for the purpose of this FMI policy. Tenure-track faculty with joint appointments shall be assigned to their primary department for the purpose of FMI review. Temporary faculty teaching in more than one department shall be reviewed in each department for the portion of their time base relevant to that department.
2.2	The term "department chair" shall be used to refer to an academic department chair or equivalent for the purpose of this FMI policy. The department chair equivalent for coaches shall be the Athletics Compliance Officer. The department chair equivalent for Librarians shall be the Faculty Senate Librarian representative. The department chair equivalent for Counselors shall be their immediate supervisors. These definitions of department chair equivalents do not imply an expectation that Management Personnel Plan faculty will serve on department FMI or SSSI committees.
2.3	The term "college" shall be used to refer to an academic college or equivalent unit for the purpose of this FMI policy. The three units equivalent to colleges shall be (a) Athletics, (b) Student Affairs, and (c) Library.
2.4	The term "dean" shall be used to refer to an academic dean or equivalent for the purpose of this FMI policy. For coaches, the Director of Athletics shall be the college dean equivalent. For librarians, the University Librarian shall be the dean equivalent. For counselors, the Vice President for Student Affairs shall be the dean equivalent.

3.1	For 1998/99 and 1999/00, the AAR shall be submitted no later than October 1, 1999. This report shall detail annual faculty activities in separate sections as follows.

a)	For 1998/99, all appropriate activities from July 1, 1995 or from the period covered in the last successful PSSI review or from the date of initial appointment (whichever beginning date is most recent) through June 30, 1998; FMIs to be effective July 1, 1998.
b)	For 1999/00, all appropriate activities from July 1, 1998 through June 30, 1999; FMIs to be effective July 1, 1999.




3.2	The AAR shall be submitted no later than October 1 of each year thereafter. In fiscal year 2000/01, the time period of review for activities contained in the AAR shall be July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2000. Additional time lines for the FMI program for each year shall be as provided in Appendix G of the MOU.
3.3	The AAR format shall be as shown in Attachment 1. Each AAR shall include the faculty unit employee's rank/classification, salary, date of appointment, and whether the faculty unit employee is eligible for a Service Salary Step Increase.
3.4	The AAR must cover only the designated time period. If an activity is spread out over more than this period, the AAR must describe the contribution to this activity which was made during that time period.

4.1	The following employees are not eligible for FMIs: Substitute Instructional Faculty, Instructional Faculty - Extension, Instructional Faculty - Special Programs, Instructional Faculty - Summer Arts, Instructional Faculty - Summer Session, persons not employed during the applicable review period as specified in Section 3, and persons on full-time leave without pay for personal reasons during the entire applicable review period.
4.2	Faculty unit employees who indicate on their AARs that they decline to participate in the FMI program shall not be considered for FMIs.
4.3	The following is a clarification of FMI eligibility for part-time temporary employees:

1)	For 1998/99, part-time temporary faculty unit employees who submit completed AARs, who had an appointment at any point during the period July 1, 1995 through June 30, 1998, and who are eligible to receive the FMI award shall be eligible for consideration for an FMI.
2)	For 1999/00 and thereafter, part-time temporary faculty unit employees who submit completed AARs, who had an appointment at any point during the period of the review cycle, and who are eligible to receive the FMI award shall be eligible for consideration for an FMI.
3)	A part-time temporary faculty unit employee shall have an appointment at some point during the current academic year for which the FMI awards are effective in order to be eligible to receive an FMI. The department shall be responsible for making its best determination as to whether or not a part-time temporary faculty unit employee has reason to expect an appointment for the Winter and/or Spring quarters of that current academic year when implementing Sections 4.3.a and 4.3.b.

a)	the quality of the unit member's teaching alone;
b)	teaching and scholarship;
c)	teaching and service to the University and community; or
d)	teaching, scholarship, and service to the University and community.

Tenure track faculty will be evaluated under category 5.1.d unless their work assignment specifies otherwise.

5.2	Faculty unit employees whose performance does not include assignments in one or more of the above areas shall nonetheless be eligible for an FMI on the basis of their performance in the individual areas of their assignment. Examples would be part-time faculty assigned only to teaching or full-time faculty on sabbatical leave for a year.
5.3	Teaching is broad and inclusive. Teaching encompasses instruction and such activities as advising, mentoring, supervision (e.g., individual studies, thesis direction, field supervision), and a range of contributions to improving student learning (e.g., curriculum revision, course and program coordination, assessment of learning outcomes, and applications of technology). For faculty unit employees who are coaches, counselors, or librarians, "professional assignments" shall substitute for the "teaching" category.
5.4	Scholarship includes discovery (traditionally labeled research, especially published or presented to professional audiences), integration (e.g., inter- or cross-disciplinary efforts), application (e.g., used in teaching or solving social, community, or technical problems), and creative activity (e.g., works of art, performances).
5.5	Service to the University and community is likewise broad. Service to the University and community includes the activity necessary to the faculty role in shared governance of the institution (CSU and its campuses) and activity applying the unit employee's expertise to benefit the University and its community in general. Examples of service include significant committee work; student outreach and retention; participation in university and community organizations, community partnerships, professional associations, faculty associations, and appropriate governmental boards and commissions; advancement of public support for the University; and lectures and seminars to community groups.

For instructional faculty, service shall be defined as university service and/or community service, and/or administrative assignment. Administrative assignment shall be defined as duties performed as department chair, as program coordinator, or for any other administrative duties for which assigned time has been provided at the systemwide, university or college level.

        No faculty unit employee shall receive more than a 7.5% FMI in any year.

6.1

Permanent increase in base salary. An FMI shall be a permanent increase in the base salary of the faculty unit employee on the salary schedule in Appendix C to the MOU, except for faculty unit employees (other than Professors) who have reached the top of their rank or classification in the salary schedule in Appendix C.

6.2

Bonus (not a permanent increase in the base salary of the individual). An FMI shall be a bonus of no more than the equivalent of an annual salary increase of 7.5% in the case of any faculty unit employee (except for those at the rank of Professor) who has reached the top of her/his rank or classification in the salary schedule in Appendix C to the MOU. An FMI may also be a bonus of no more than an annual salary increase of 7.5% in the case of any faculty unit member whose demonstrated performance is being recognized as part of an activity or project conducted by a team, department, or group of employees.

a)	The Department,
b)	The College Dean, and
c)	The President and/or designee.

 

7.2	A faculty unit member shall not review his/her own AAR for an FMI. However, no faculty unit employee shall become ineligible for service on a Department FMI Committee because he/she is being considered for an FMI.
7.3	Each level of review shall forward all AARs, as well as the recommendations from that level on each of the faculty unit members, to the next level of review. Failure to meet any established deadline for recommendations shall automatically result in the forwarding of all AARs and lower level recommendations to the next level of review. The timetable for FMI review process is shown in Attachment 2.
7.4	Recommendations for each faculty unit employee at the first two levels of review in the FMI process shall include the following:




a)	whether the faculty unit employee is recommended to receive an FMI, and
b)	if the recommendation in 7.4.a is yes, the amount of the increase recommended.

0 = Not Recommended
1 = Recommended
2 = Highly Recommended
3 = Very Highly Recommended
4 = Outstanding

Departments are free to determine how to relate the amount of an FMI recommendation to the rating scale above. Two possible approaches are shown in Attachment 4.

Departments may recommend that an individual faculty unit member receive an FMI at any amount up to the maximum amount provided in Section 6. The Department's recommendations shall include whether the faculty unit employee should receive an FMI and also the amount of the FMI. The total dollars of the department's recommendations for all FMIs recommended for faculty unit employees in the department shall not exceed the amount of dollars allocated to the Department in Section 8.1.

Department FMI recommendations and comments shall be made on the FMI Recommendation Form (Attachment 5) for each faculty unit member and forwarded along with all AARs to the College Dean. For each faculty unit employee, the department can forward only one FMI Recommendation Form to the dean and that form can contain only one set of recommendations regarding FMI ranking, whether to recommend an FMI and how much.

11.1

All Department FMI recommendations shall be reviewed by the College Dean. The Dean may concur or disagree with the recommendations, may change the amount of any recommended FMI, and/or may recommend an FMI for any member of the department that was not recommended by the department. The dean may recommend that an individual receive an FMI of any amount up to the maximum amount provided in Section 6. It is the Dean's responsibility to make final recommendations for disposition of all the FMI funds allocated to departments within the College. Each recommendation shall be made on the FMI Recommendation Form.

11.2

The Dean shall forward the AAR and all recommendations from the first two levels of review to the President and/or designee.

13.1	As soon as Department FMI recommendations are forwarded to the Dean, the Dean shall provide each faculty unit member with a copy of her/his Department FMI recommendation. If a faculty unit member disagrees with the recommendation, she/he may file a written rebuttal with the Dean within seven calendar days of being sent the recommendation.
13.2	The Dean's recommendation on each faculty unit member shall be forwarded simultaneously to the faculty unit member and the Office of Academic Personnel. If the faculty unit member disagrees with the recommendation, she/he may submit a written rebuttal to the Office of Academic Personnel within seven calendar days of being sent the recommendation.
13.3	The President and/or designee's decision on each faculty unit member shall be forwarded to the faculty unit member and the Dean. If the President and/or designee reduces the FMI recommended by the Dean or the Department, the affected faculty unit member may submit a written rebuttal to and appeal the decision of the President and/or designee. The rebuttal and appeal request shall be submitted in writing to the Office of Academic Personnel within 14 calendar days of being sent the decision.
13.4	The appeal shall be heard by an appeal committee as described in the MOU. The decision of the appeal committee shall be final and binding. This decision shall be forwarded simultaneously to the faculty unit member, the President and/or designee, and the Dean.

The appeal panel from which the appeal committee is selected shall be elected at the beginning of Fall quarter by the Faculty Senate Constituent Unit elections officers. Five members shall be elected from each Constituent Unit. For this purpose, the five constituent units are defined as follows: Arts & Letters and Library; Business and Public Administration; Education; Natural Sciences and Coaches; Social and Behavioral Sciences and Counselors. All faculty unit employees, tenure track and temporary, shall be eligible to run and vote. Voting shall be done by the preferential method. When the appeal committee is selected by lot from the panel, one faculty unit employee shall be selected from each constituent unit.

14.1

The decision concerning granting an FMI shall not be considered in deliberations regarding reappointment, promotion, or tenure (RPT) unless the faculty unit member includes the material in her/his Personnel Action File (PAF). This shall not preclude the consideration of any facts during RTP deliberations which are also considered during FMI deliberations. AARs and notification of all FMI decisions may be placed in both the PAF and any Working PAF established for the purpose of RPT evaluations at the discretion of the faculty unit employee.

14.2

The award of FMIs shall not be considered personnel recommendations, decisions or actions which must be based upon a faculty unit member's Personnel Action File. However, this shall not preclude review of a faculty unit member's WPAF during FMI deliberations.

16.1	Faculty bargaining unit employees eligible for an SSSI shall be reviewed by the Department using the same committee/department chair/designee structure the department has elected to use for the evaluation of department members for FMIs (Section 9). The Department shall recommend whether to grant or deny an SSSI; department procedures must ensure that no faculty unit member shall participate in making the decision regarding her/his own SSSI award. The department recommendation, using an SSSI Recommendation Form, shall be forwarded to the College Dean. Department SSSI recommendations shall be made and forwarded to the Dean before the department FMI recommendations are made and forwarded.
16.2	The recommendation of the Department shall be reviewed by the College Dean, who shall either grant or deny the SSSI. An SSSI Recommendation Form (Attachment 6) shall be used.
16.3	The criteria to be used when evaluating faculty bargaining unit employees for an SSSI shall be whether the employee has demonstrated satisfactory performance commensurate with rank, work assignment, and years of service. This evaluation shall be based on the employee's AAR covering the prior year and may include the employee's Working Personnel Action File.
16.4	The decision to deny an SSSI may be appealed as provided in the MOU, using the FMI Appeals Panel. The procedure for selecting an SSSI Appeals Committee shall be the same as for selecting an FMI Appeals Committee. A person who has been selected to serve on the FMI Appeals Committee may decline to serve on that committee, if she/he has previously been selected for the SSSI Appeals Committee, or vice versa.

s99-02.R1