The Provost Office and Office for Faculty Advancement (OFA) are excited to join you in welcoming new faculty to our university. Given the ongoing revisions to Governing and Administrative Regulations, as well as our recent restructuring of shared faculty governance, this memo has several new points this year.
OFA’s main function is to support faculty in their career progression at UK. We would like to remind you of the resources OFA offers year-round including professional development opportunities, workshops aimed at demystifying promotion and tenure, guidance on policies and processes related to faculty, individual consultations to address faculty questions, professional coaching and many other topics. Please be sure to encourage faculty members to visit and bookmark our website: https://ofa.uky.edu/ .
At the beginning of an individual’s faculty employment, it is critical that they receive and are briefed on university policies applicable to their career development. Please ensure all your faculty (especially your new faculty) are familiar with the rules, policies and expectations for their careers at UK.
- Please provide faculty with the rules and procedures of their educational unit, including the unit’s document on ‘Statements of Evidence’ for use in guiding tenure and promotion evaluations. Please note, these documents were previously hosted on the former University senate website. OFA will start posting documents that have been revised, updated and approved on our website, although this is currently in progress. If your unit’s rules and statements of evidence have not been updated and approved within the past 12-24 months they will not be posted yet. We urge you to review and revise your unit’s statements of evidence regularly and forward to OFA with any changes. As you know, these documents are extremely important as they help faculty understand unit expectations regarding their academic growth.
- Please provide faculty with links to the Governing Regulations and Administrative Regulations, especially sections dealing with appointment, reappointment, promotion and tenure (AR 2:1)
- Please review the faculty consulting and overload employment rules and regulations and provide faculty with a copy of these (AR 3:9)
- Please review and share the faculty leave of absence policies, particularly the faculty temporary disability and family medical leave policy.
- Please review the University’s Ethical Principles and Employee Code of Conduct
- Other important documents that faculty should be familiar with are the rules and procedures of their college, how to access their Standard Personnel File, and the Student Rights and Responsibilities.
In addition, please alert faculty that this memo and other faculty-focused information about criteria for academic ranks, performance evaluation, and promotion and tenure regulations are available online here. Other sections of the OFA website offer information about becoming familiar with the university, the community, career development sessions, resources for new faculty, and other useful resources. The Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) maintains additional information and resources for faculty on its website and will be in touch with new faculty about opportunities for support as they begin their careers at UK.
Faculty Standard Personnel File
In compliance with the University’s Administrative Regulations, every faculty employee has one official Standard Personnel File. This file contains the faculty employee’s Notice of Academic Appointment and Assignment contracts, transcript, curriculum vita and other work-related materials (e.g., distribution of effort agreements, evaluation reports and progress reviews). Many of these materials are required content for dossiers assembled to conduct reappointment, tenure, and promotion reviews. Ensuring that a faculty employee’s Standard Personnel File is complete, accurate and up to date is the joint responsibility of the faculty employee and educational unit administrator. A faculty employee’s access to their Standard Personnel File shall not be impeded.
We hope that all our faculty members, both new and returning, have an excellent year and find the Office for Faculty Advancement to be a supportive and helpful resource in their career.