Administrative Personnel Policies and Procedures; Superseded by EM 03-010

From: Manuel A. Esteban, President

Subject: Administrative Personnel Policies and Procedures; Superseded by EM 03-010

On the recommendation of the Academic Senate and Provost McNall, I approve the revisions to EM 94-01, Administrative Officer Selection and Review Policies and Procedures, effective immediately.

ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Introduction

Administrative officers serve at the pleasure of the President. The review process may be initiated by the President at any time.

This document describes policies and procedures governing the selection and review of executive officers and deans.

Schedule for Reviews

Scheduling procedures

During the spring semester of each year, the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate in consultation with the President shall

• Determine which reviews and selections will be performed during the following year.
• Determine which committees will be needed during the following year.
• Assign review and selection responsibilities to committees.
• Select or initiate selection procedures for members of committees.

Schedule

Although each administrator shall normally be reviewed during the fourth year and every four years thereafter, the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate in consultation with the President may alter the schedule as circumstances dictate. For example:

• Filling a vacant position may cause rescheduling of reviews.
• The reviews may be delayed no more than two years because of the workload of the committee or absence of reviewee.
• An executive officer principal subordinate may have a multi-year contract necessitating review at intervals other than four years.
• The President may request an early review.
• The President may grant a request by the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate for an early review of an administrator.
• Principal subordinates may be reviewed as a part of the review of the appropriate Executive Officer or separately.

Early Dean Review and Recall

The President may grant a request by a college personnel committee for an early review of a college dean upon petition by 25 percent of college voting faculty.

Upon petition by at least 25 percent of the college voting faculty, a recall action of a college dean may be initiated. Within 14 to 21 days after receiving a valid recall petition, the Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) shall arrange for a secret ballot referendum. The ballots will be counted by the VPAA assisted by two members of the appropriate faculty selected at random. The VPAA will advise the President of the results and the President will respond to the college faculty in writing. The response will include

• The results
• The decision regarding the dean
• The reasons for the decision.

Executive Officers

Definition

For purposes of selection and review, Executive Officers include all those administrators who report directly to the President and have the title Vice President or Provost.

Executive officer principal subordinates include all those individuals not included in Section III.A.1 above who have administrative responsibilities and report directly to the President or to an executive officer as defined in III.A.1 above. For example, individuals with the title Vice Provost, Director, or Associate Vice President are executive officer principal subordinates. In addition, administrators who have multi-year contracts and report to an executive officer are executive officer principal subordinates.

Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee

Five members of the University Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee shall be elected in accord with the following procedures:

• All tenured faculty, as defined in the Constitution of the Faculty, shall be eligible for nomination.
• Early in the spring semester, members of the Academic Senate shall nominate individuals to fill vacancies on the committees.
• The Chair of the Academic Senate shall inform the faculty-at-large regarding the nominations and the date of the elections.
• Additional nominees may be presented to the Chair of the Academic Senate by petition. Petitions must be signed by the nominee and twenty faculty members who are eligible to vote.
• During the spring semester each year, the Academic Senate shall elect new members of the committee by a majority of secret ballots.
• The term of office for the members of the committee shall be three years.
• These five members shall select the committee chair annually, and no member may serve as chair for more than two consecutive years. The Chair shall receive 0.2 position of assigned time during periods when a search or review is underway.
• When a member of the Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee is granted a leave or is unable to serve for some other reason, the Academic Senate shall elect a replacement for the duration of the member's term.

The Director of Affirmative Action shall be a non-voting member of selection committees.

In addition to the faculty members elected in accord with the procedures in section III.B.1 above, additional members shall be selected as follows:

• A dean of a college selected by the deans.
• A staff member selected by the Staff Council.

During searches, the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate in consultation with the President may form one or more expanded search committees.

• Each expanded search committee shall include the seven members identified in III.B.1 and III.B.3 plus one faculty member selected by the faculty of the appropriate unit and/or one staff member selected by the staff of the appropriate unit. In those instances where the expanded membership is to represent campuswide constituencies, appointment shall be through consultation between the President and the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate.
• The Chair of the Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee shall also chair expanded search committees.

Executive Officer Principal Subordinate Review Committee

During the spring semester of each year, the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate in consultation with the President shall (1) determine whether there will be a need for one or more ad hoc Executive Officer Principal Subordinate Review Committees during the next year and, when appropriate (2) select committee members for one-year terms as follows:

• Two members from a pool consisting of faculty who have served as department chairs (or equivalent) during two of the preceding four years.
• Three faculty members from a pool consisting of all of the individuals who have served within the past four years on the Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee plus all those individuals who have served within the past four years on a College Dean Selection and Review Committee.
• A staff member selected by the Staff Council. This staff member must be employed in an area other than the office directly administered by the individual under review.
• A college dean selected by the deans.
• The committee chair shall be elected by and from the five committee members identified in paragraphs 1 and 2.

College Deans/Director, School of Agriculture

Definitions

College deans include all those individuals who report directly to the provost and administer units with teaching faculty.

Deans' principal subordinates include all those individuals with the title Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, Program Coordinator, or other administrative title within a college.

Department chairs and those individuals whose duties include the responsibilities of department chairs are not considered deans' principal subordinates for matters of this policy.

The Executive Committee of the Academic Senate and President may interpret whether this policy applies to other individuals.

College Dean Selection and Review Committees

Each College Dean Selection and Review Committee shall include a college dean, an individual appointed by and from the Office of the Provost, one staff member from the college, and one faculty member from each department/school of the college with a minimum of four faculty. In addition, each college may choose to include one faculty member elected at large.

The faculty members shall be selected and function without additional remuneration as follows:

• All tenured faculty members in the college, as defined in the Constitution of the Faculty, shall be eligible for nomination.
• Individual nominees shall be selected by procedures established for that purpose by the college.
• Additional nominees may be presented to the College Personnel Committee by petition. Petitions must be signed by nine faculty members who are eligible to vote and by the proposed nominee.
• The College Personnel Committee shall inform the faculty-at-large regarding the nominations and the date of the elections.
• During the spring semester preceding the selection or review, the faculty eligible to vote (as defined by the college constitution) shall elect the faculty members of the committee by a majority of secret ballots.
• When a member of the committee is unable to serve, the college faculty shall elect a replacement.

The staff member shall be selected and function without additional remuneration as follows:

• All staff members in the college shall be eligible for selection to dean selection committees. However, only staff members in the college but outside the candidate's immediate office shall be eligible for selection to dean review committees.
• The individual staff member shall be selected by procedures established for that purpose by the Staff Council.
• When the staff member of the committee is unable to serve, the Staff Council shall select a replacement.

The elected college faculty members shall select the committee chair.

The Director of Affirmative Action shall be a non-voting member of selection committees.

Members of the committee shall serve for the duration of the selection or review. When a review results in replacement of a dean, individuals who served on the review committee may not serve on the selection committee.

Dean's Principal Subordinate Selection Committees

Guidelines for membership on these committees are to be determined by the faculty of the appropriate college and approved by the Provost.

Procedures for Executive Officer Selection and Review Committees and for Dean Selection and Review Committees

All written statements, including comments written on questionnaires, must be signed or must be presented by the committee in aggregated form. Interview summaries or reports must be signed by the interviewer(s) and must include a list of the persons interviewed. Aggregated qualitative data will not identify the source of individual comments.

Within two weeks of the time that the last member eligible to vote for the chair of the selection and review committee is selected, the Chair of the Academic Senate shall convene the committee to conduct an election for committee chair.

Each member of the committee shall review prior reports or, if more appropriate, a summary of findings and recommendations. The President or designee shall make this information available to committee members.

Each committee shall meet with the appropriate officer (the President with the Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee and the VPAA with the Dean Selection and Review Committees) to receive the charge to the committee to develop performance criteria and to establish working procedures.

For all review committees the following procedural guidelines are recommended:

• All reviews are to be interactive. The committee should meet with the candidate in order that the candidate may provide the committee with his/her written ideas about what is relevant to the process. The committee will, prior to the completion of its report, present the candidate with a draft copy and allow the reviewee to challenge any factual errors or errors of interpretation.
• The committee should operate with the assumption that it is preparing a report for the President or the VPAA and that the committee report is one element of the review process.
• The committee shall produce a developmental report, which contains appropriate suggestions for the improvement of the candidate's performance.
• The report from the committee is a confidential report. At no time is the committee, or any member of the committee, to release, publish, or disseminate the report or any of its contents in any fashion. To insure the integrity of the process, it is essential that all committee members respect the confidential nature of the report. A breach of confidentiality will result in the removal of the offending member from the committee and possible disciplinary action.
• The following procedures for gathering and interpreting information should be considered:
  • Generalizations cannot be based on one or two observations. If there is a minority view which deserves to be expressed, it is important that some idea about the number of people involved be given.
  • The report should reflect the reviewee's performance since the time of last review or the time of appointment. The report must focus on the entire span of time, not just the last year or last few months. If there are significant changes in behavior/performance over the period of time under consideration, they should be noted.
  • In evaluating the candidate's performance, appropriate consideration must be given to the Provost's perception of the position, as well as the perceptions of other relevant external and internal constituencies, including alumni, students, staff, faculty, graduate students, and community members.

All selection and review committees are personnel committees. All of their work is confidential. Substantive reports shall be made only to members of successor committees or to the President or designee.

The President or the Provost will share the committee's report with the reviewee before placement in file.

The Executive Officer Selection and Review Committee and the Executive Officer Principal Subordinate Review Committee shall report annually to the Academic Senate, describing within the bounds of confidentiality, the activities and working relationships of the committee during the year.