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

1.  Preamble

This document is designed to implement the sections in Article 31 in the Memorandum of Understanding for employees in the Faculty Bargaining Unit (Unit 3) dealing with the Faculty Merit Increase and Service Salary Step Increase Programs. All Faculty Merit Increase (FMI) and Service Salary Step Increase (SSSI) awards at California State University, San Bernardino shall be made in conformance with this policy. In any instance of conflict between the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and this FMI policy, the MOU shall govern.

All faculty, both tenure-track and temporary, have the right to be involved in the departmental determination of the appropriate FMI structure, all faculty have the right to participate in voting for and serving on department committees should that be the mechanism chosen, and all faculty have the right to participate in voting for and serving on the campus appeals panel. All appeals panel and committee members shall have equal voting rights as committee or panel members regardless of time base. Each department shall be responsible for ensuring that adequate records concerning temporary faculty are maintained.

2.  Definitions

3.  Annual Activities Report (AAR)

Each faculty unit employee shall submit three copies of a completed Annual Activities Report (AAR) to her/his department chair.

4.  FMI Eligibility

All full- and part-time faculty unit employees who submit completed AARs are eligible for and shall be considered for FMIs except those indicated in Sections 4.1 and 4.2 below.

5.  Criteria

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

6.  Maximum Amounts and Types of Faculty Merit Increases

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

7.  Levels of Review and the General Review Process

8.  Allocation of Funds for FMI Recommendations

The total funds available for FMIs in a specific cycle shall be subdivided as follows for the purpose of recommendations at the review levels specified in Section 7.1.

9.  Department FMI Recommendation Structure

For the purpose of arriving at Departmental FMI recommendations, departments are free to use a Department FMI Committee, the department chair, a designee, or any combination of the preceding. The decision on structure is to be made on an annual basis by a vote of all faculty unit employees in the department. It is permissible to allow for procedures that permit votes proportional to time base for part-time unit members. The department chair shall be responsible for conducting the vote and for notifying the dean concerning the department decision regarding the structure by which department FMI decisions will be made. Attachment 3 contains four specific alternatives for making department FMI recommendations suggested (but not required) by the Faculty Senate. Department procedures must ensure that no faculty unit member shall participate in the evaluation of her/his own AAR.

10.  FMI Merit Rating and Recommendations at the Department Level

Departments shall review the AARs of all qualified faculty unit employees assigned to the department, including department chairs. Department reviewers may ask faculty members to clarify the information in the AAR. For each award period, the Department shall rate the merit of each faculty unit member using the following scale:

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.  College Dean Review and Recommendation 

12.  President and/or designee Review and Decision

The President and/or designee shall review each AAR and all relevant recommendations from the first two levels of review. The President and/or designee may concur or disagree with the recommendations, may change the amount of any recommended FMI, and/or may grant an FMI for any member of the department that was not recommended by the department or by the dean. The president may grant that an individual receive an FMI of any amount up to the maximum amount provided in Section 6. Each decision shall be made on the FMI Recommendation Form. The total of the recommendations at this level shall not exceed 95% of the annual FMI funds available, i.e., the total of the department FMI pools plus the President's FMI pool.

13.  Communication, Rebuttals, and Appeal During the AAR Review Process

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.  Use of FMI Materials in RPT Deliberations

15.  Campus Information Regarding Those Receiving FMIs

A list of faculty unit employees who have received an FMI, their ranks, the amount of each FMI, and their department affiliations shall be made public on campus within one month after final decisions regarding FMIs are made. Awards shall also be reported by amount of increase, gender, and ethnicity but without individual name.

Completed AARs shall be made available in the College Office for a period of one year following publication of the awards, for review by faculty members in that college.

16.  Service Salary Step Increase Procedures (Fiscal Year 1999-2000 and Subsequent Years)

FSD 99-02.R1

Approved by the Faculty Senate
Jeanne King, Chair

Reviewed by the Academic Affairs Council
Louis Fernandez, Provost andVice President for Academic Affairs

Approved by the President
Albert K. Karnig

s99-02.R1


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