Prompted by the Provost’s Career Track equity review, and following discussions with several unit heads, Mike Staten, Jean McLain, and Janis Rutherford, we will begin enforcing the CATE Guidance created in 2017. Effective today, POP hires will be appointed academic (9-month) unless the Associate Dean of CAS and Assistant Dean of Finance and Administration for CALS approves a fiscal (12-month) appointment. The goal, as stated by CATE, is to create equity in workloads within units and across the college and salary comparability.
Exception to Academic Appointments
Reasons for exceptions of the academic appointment rule are limited but may include:
- the work duties require fieldwork or running field camps as part of instructional responsibilities,
- the oversight and teaching of clinical students with academic partners during the summer, or
- administrative oversight of academic activities like summer internship course work.
Workload Offsets for Exceptions
All positions that receive a fiscal appointment must also receive an offset to their teaching load in the fall/spring so that it is consistent with the workload requirements for CALS of 18 credits per year for a 1.0 FTE position, or the employee must be paid for the additional summer work. Unit leaders can assign and expect faculty to perform summer teaching, so long as faculty are paid for additional work above the workload requirements.
Existing Fiscal POPs
Some units have been working with existing fiscal to convert them from 12 to 9-month appointments. I applaud and encourage all unit leaders to engage their fiscal POPs in this conversation; however, the conversion must be voluntary and elected by the faculty member. Appointment conversions require that faculty sign a new offer letter, there are considerations for when to change the appointment, and there are consequences to annual leave, to name a few issues. Faculty and you will surely have questions. Please speak with Mike, Janis, and Jean who have answers.