Faculty going up for promotion or being appointed at a senior rank should always follow their specific tracks appointment and promotions guidelines. Executive committee vote and approval is required for all faculty hires (including those at senior rank). An executive committee vote is also required prior to sending the promotion dossier to the FPT. This vote will be documented in the chairs letter of the promotion dossier.

Note: at the time the offer letter was being drafted, the department/HR would have needed to submit a senior rank review request form (step 1 a.). A "senior rank" hire is when a department appoints a faculty member at either the Associate or full Professor rank on the CHS, CT, or tenure track, and they are initially hired into a provisional visiting appointment. The process outlined in this KB begins after the senior rank review request has been completed, the individual has been hired, and the department is ready to begin preparing the senior rank appointment packet/dossier or, for promotion, the process below begins once the EC has voted to promote the faculty member and the department will begin putting together the dossier. The senior rank review request form is ONLY for new appointments at senior rank and is NOT needed for promotions to senior ranks.

• Guidelines should be reviewed every year before preparing the dossiers
• Guidelines indicate their appointment responsibilities, types of cases for promotion and appointment, the timeline for promotion, as well as a specific checklist of all required documents needed within the appointment/promotion package
• Almost all departments in SMPH have a Faculty Promotions Specialist (FPS) to assist in compiling their department faculties senior rank appointment and promotion dossiers. In instances where a department does not have a FPS, the Department Administrator or another departmental staff member handles the compilation and submission of the dossier

Workflow for promotion and senior rank appointment approvals - internal SMPH promotions committees (CHS, CT, RP, TP, and tenured full professor):

Workflow for promotion and senior rank appointment approvals (Assistant to Associate Professor with Tenure OR appointments to Associate or Professor with Tenure) - *UW campus divisional tenure committees:

*There are four UW Campus Divisional Tenure committees, which are assigned to faculty based on which best aligns with their career. These are Arts & Humanities, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences Divisional Committees. The most common divisional committee within SMPH tenure track faculty is Biological Sciences, however, SMPH has faculty assigned to Physical Sciences and Social Sciences as well. For more information on the divisional committees, please visit the Office of the Secretary of the Faculty's Preparing for Tenure page.

FPT and HRBP

• Once a candidate is approved for their senior rank appointment, the FPT will contact the candidate's department chair, HRBP, and departmental FPS with a memo from the Dean stating the approval, a procedure for processing appointment letters, and how to determine new salaries for appointed faculty for the current fiscal year
• The FPT will link the specific notification letter template the HRBP needs to use for drafting, as well as indicate any other important compensation notes
  • All up to date templates can be found on the SMPH Letter & Memo Templates KB under Faculty > Promotion
• The HRBP is responsible for obtaining faculty signatures and forwarding the final signed appointment notification letter to the FPT who will upload the letter to ImageNow.
• The HRBP is also responsible for entering the transfer from the faculty’s current visiting title to their permanent title in JEMS Hire, under their original PVL.
  • Note: if the faculty member currently has a Temporary Base Adjustment (TBA) or Basic Science Incentive (BSI) on their Visiting appointment, you must end the TBA/BSI, process the transfer to their permanent title, and then re-add the TBA/BSI. (helpful resource: TBAs, BSIs & Faculty Promotions KB)
• Processing the transfer: HRBP will go to the new hire basket in JEMS Hire, find the faculty member’s name (linked to the PVL they were recruited on) and process the transfer. Note: tips for the "Job" tab below.
  • Action reason should be “transfer” to ensure you are transferring the record the Visiting appointment was on rather than selecting “hire” and creating an additional empl record/appointment for the faculty member
  • Effective date of transfer is the first of the month following the committee’s meeting/vote of approval. The FPT will also confirm this date within their notification of approval email
  • Probation type
    • For those whose 12 month evaluation period is not yet completed when they are being transferred, select the probation type and list the same probation end date that was listed on the Visiting appointment entry
    • If the transfer is occurring at the 12 month mark, once the evaluation period has ended, select "not required" since they have already fulfilled their 12 month evaluation period while in their Visiting title
  • The HRBP may need to email OHR to have the empl added to the JEMS Hire transaction.
  • THe HRBP is also responsible for completing an EFTOne Check request.

HRBP (once the transfer from Visiting to the permanent title has been processed):

• If the employee has a partial VA leave and will continue working at the VA after their transfer, the leave will need to be entered on the new position in HRS. For more information, see VA Leave Without Pay. Note: a new/additional LWOP request form for the VA 8ths leave is not needed if everything remains the same as it was in the visiting title. If the VA 8ths are changing at the time of the transition to permanent, please submit an updated LWOP form.
• If applicable, update faculty member’s new title on departmental org chart
• If applicable, update Reports To field in HRS for individuals supervised by the faculty member
• If applicable, connect with your HR Operations Coordinator to see if there will be any update to the faculty member's Position of Trust status

FPT, HRBP and Faculty HR

(Note: HRBP will not process a transaction for a promotion. The FPT processes these. All Promotions are effective on the first day of the July A Payroll period of each year.)

• Once a candidate is approved for promotion, the FPT will contact the candidate's department chair, HRBP, and departmental FPS with a memo from the Dean stating the approval, a procedure for processing promotion letters, and how to determine new salaries for promoted faculty for the current fiscal year
• The FPT will link the specific notification letter template the HRBP is to use for drafting, as well as indicate any other important compensation notes. (i.e. TBA’s, BSI’s)
  • All up to date templates can be found on the SMPH Letter & Memo Templates KB under Faculty > Promotion
• If a faculty member has an active TBA and/or BSI, you will do the following to calculate their new salary (helpful resource: TBAs, BSIs, and Faculty Promotions):
  • Subtract the amount of the TBA/BSI from the faculty’s current salary in HRS
  • You will then add in the applicable promotional increase for the current fiscal year

OR

• • If the faculty member qualifies for a 10% increase in situations where adding 10% of the faculty’s current base salary would be HIGHER than the mandatory minimum fixed promotional amount, the department can elect that instead.
  • If the faculty member is still BELOW the minimum annual salary for their title after adding their promotional increase, then they will have to be raised to the minimum annual salary amount.
  • Important note: Tenure track faculty are raised to the minimum of the new rank if needed BEFORE applying the promotional increase. All other tracks’ faculty are raised to the minimum of the new rank if needed AFTER the promotional increase is applied.
• The HRBP is responsible for obtaining faculty signatures and forwarding the final signed appointment notification letter to the FPT for uploading to ImageNow.

FPT and HRBP – Rate & Title transaction

• For promotions, the FPT will enter the Rate & Title change in JEMS and upload all final documents to ImageNow, which occurs in late Spring, as a bulk action.
• As stated above, the FPT will include within their notification of approval email if the faculty recommended for promotion has a TBA and/or BSI involved within their current compensation.
• If the faculty member has an active TBA and/or BSI, the HRBP will be contacted in late Spring for assistance with asking SMPH Compensation to STOP and RESTART faculty’s TBA’s and/or BSI’s, while the FPT processes these promotional R&T approvals.  (helpful resource: TBAs, BSIs & Faculty Promotions KB)
• Departments can elect to add the TBA and/or BSI back into the total salary amount listed within the promotion notification letter. They may elect not to add the amounts into the total salary amount listed. Either way, the letter should indicate if it does or does not include the TBA and/or BSI

FPT and Faculty HR – Contracts

• The FPT is responsible for notifying the Faculty HR team of promotions, and they will update contracts in HRS as applicable
  • FYI: Once a faculty member has been granted tenure (Associate or full Professor), they no longer have contracts/reappointments. (TENURE ONLY)

HRBP (once the FPT has processed the promotion):

• If the employee has a partial VA leave and will continue working at the VA after their transfer, the leave will have to be entered on the new position in HRS. For more information, see VA Leave Without Pay. Note: a new/additional LWOP request form for the VA 8ths leave is not needed if everything remains the same as it was prior to promotion approval. If the VA 8ths are changing at the time of the transition to the new title, please submit an updated LWOP form.
• If applicable, update faculty member’s new title on departmental org chart
• If applicable, update Reports To field in HRS for individuals supervised by the faculty member
• If applicable, connect with your HR Operations Coordinator to see if there will be any update to the faculty member's Position of Trust status

• If a candidate on any track is recommended against promotion:
  • The tracks Promotions/Appointments Committee Chair will notify the Department Chair and Dean in writing within one week of the meeting
  • The Department Chair may appeal the decision in writing to the Committee within 60 days of receiving the written explanation. Appeals will usually provide new or additional information and response to the issues raised by the Committee
  • After the Department submits the appeal to the FPT, the Committee will review the appeal and either uphold their decision or recommend promotion
  • If the Committee upholds their decision again promotion, the Committee will again contact the Department Chair of their decision, and the Department can then make a final appeal to the Dean.
  • Reminder: Assistant Professors on the CHS and Tenure track have promotion timelines and deadline review dates, whereas Assistant Professors on the CT, RP, and TP track do not, and may stay in that title for the entirety of their appointment
  • Important note: Assistant Professors on the CHS or Tenure tracks who are not approved for promotion by the end of the penultimate year of their clock must receive a non-renewal letter, indicating their appointment will end in one year
• If a candidate at the Associate level on any track is recommended against promotion by the Committee:
  • The same steps of appeals as previously stated will apply
• Important note: A negative decision on promotion from the Associate level to Professor level on all tracks does not preclude consideration in subsequent years. The department chair is recommended to meet with the candidate to discuss how to make a stronger case for promotion in the future.
• If a candidate for appointment at senior rank is denied by the committee, the reconsideration/appeal steps above may be followed.  If these are unsuccessful, then the appointment will end on the date indicated for this contingency in the original appointment letter