Faculty Personnel Actions FAQ

Revised August 2020

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What is the docket?

The docket is the entirety of the materials provided to the Board of Visitors (BOV) for review prior to a board meeting. The faculty personnel actions are a subset of this material. For clarity, we refer to the faculty personnel actions report as the Faculty Personnel Actions or FPA. Occasionally there are resolutions taken separately in the docket that are related to faculty personnel, and there are resolutions or announcements in the Faculty Personnel Actions that are unrelated to the faculty.

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Do part-time teaching faculty appointments (also referred to as wage) require BOV approval?

They do not. Only personnel actions for full-time salaried professorial faculty require BOV approval.

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Do faculty members receive approval letters from the provost after the BOV meeting? 

Provost office personnel (the Faculty Actions Specialists) prepare the individual letters that correspond to every personnel action in the report approved by the BOV. Following a meeting, these letters are signed by Susan Harris, Secretary to the Board of Visitors, and sent by the BOV office. Deans and department chairs also receive copies, and a copy is filed in the UVA HR central personnel files of the faculty members.

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Which Visiting Professor appointments require BOV Approval?

All personnel actions for full-time salaried professorial faculty require BOV approval, regardless of whether or not the appointment is considered “visiting.” Just as with all other appointments, if the visiting position is part-time, and/or unpaid, it would not typically go to the board. 

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When personnel actions require prior Provost approval, how does a school ensure there is time for them to appear in the faculty personnel actions?

Schools should submit personnel actions to the provost’s office as soon as possible. Off-cycle promotion and tenure nominations (including new senior hires being offered tenure), endowed chair nominations, and emeritus nominations are reviewed and approved by the provost for recommendation to the board  on a rolling basis. Prior provost approval is typically obtained by submitting requests, with all supporting material. Some types of requests are solicited via smartsheet or as a group.

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How does a school handle “switching” a faculty member from one named professorship/endowed chair to another?

  • If the faculty member has been reviewed for a professorship (including external letters) recently, say in the last 3-4 years, then the switch does not require a re-review. Please just send an email requesting the switch. Include the specific details regarding the current chair, the proposed chair, effective date, and new term details (without term or number of years).
  • If not, then the chair review committee needs to conduct a full review. We have made exceptions to this when the individual is of exceptional renown, so just ask if you think this may be the case.
  • If a full review is done, please upload the materials in the collab site and send an email to let us know it is there. 
  • In either case, please certify that the requirements for the chair, i.e., the donor’s wishes identified in the agreement, are satisfied by the new chair holder.
  • If either the old or new chair belongs to the provost office (such as a Commonwealth), then you cannot assume that the chair is assigned to your school. These chairs revert to the provost’s control once vacated.

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What is the Appointment Section of the FPA?

The appointment and re-appointment sections of the FPA refer to administrative appointments, typically for Deans. For the purposes of the FPA, new primary faculty appointments are referred to as elections. We do not take renewals of primary faculty appointments, or secondary (dual or joint) appointments to the BOV for approval, unless the joint appointment is with tenure. For more information about the sections of the FPA see…

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