Introduction

The University’s Board of Visitors (BOV) retains final authority for the personnel actions of all full-time professorial faculty (not lecturers or instructors), including elections (new hires, named professorships, and emeritus status), “off-cycle” salary changes to base salaries (typically for additional responsibilities or competitive retention purposes), promotions in professorial rank, and tenure, and certain executive administrative elections. As such, all of these personnel actions are conditional until they are approved by the Board. Faculty resignations and retirements, as well as some other types of administrative appointments, are also announced to the board as a courtesy.

Faculty Personnel Actions (FPAs) are Resolutions presented to the BOV on a quarterly basis so they can approve them. The term “FPAs” is often referenced, but truly the Faculty Personnel Actions are only one subcomponent of the entire portfolio of materials reviewed and/or approved by the BOV.

Partners

Associated with the Provost’s Office:

Faculty Actions Specialists (FAS): Staff in the Provost Office who collect the data and format the FPAs to present to the BOV as resolutions. FAS also prepare individual letters for the faculty regarding these actions. Email: facultyactions@virginia.edu

The Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs (VPFA): The VPFA, acting on behalf of the provost, is the chair of the Promotion and Tenure committee and delivers the final decisions reported to the board in June. The VPFA also works with the provost to obtain approval for special actions which require it. These actions are: off-cycle promotion and expedited tenure requests, named professorships (endowed chairs), and emeritus elections. SFAMs email requests for these pre-approvals. 

External to the Provost’s Office:

School Faculty Action Managers (SFAM): Designated staff in each school who help ensure personnel actions are keyed in Workday in time to meet deadlines for the Board of Visitors meetings, submit requests to vpfa@virginia for actions requiring provost office approval, and proofread the final version of the FPAs. Each school should have a designated SFAM.

UVA HR: Central UVA HR staff enter academic appointments in Workday, including establishing new hires in the system and updating them as they change.

General References

Types of Faculty with Personnel Actions Requiring Approval by the BOV

Faculty whose personnel actions must be approved by the BOV are:

• Professorial rank (Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors)
• Fulltime
• Salaried
• Including Visiting Professors & UVA College at Wise

How Faculty Personnel Actions are Collected 

As outlined in the table below, FPAs are collected in two primary ways: 1) FAS downloads Workday data by selecting a date range for each meeting. The dates pertain to when the action was finalized not the start date of the appointment. 2) FAS collects provost approved actions from the VPFA, as detailed below.

Schools have their own policies and procedures, but for all indicated actions schools must submit their nominees for provost approval prior to approval by the BOV for the actions indicated in the table below.

Faculty Personnel Actions

Faculty Personnel Action	Contact Method
Elections	Workday Data Report
New Chairholders and Changes of Title	VPFA@virginia.edu
Promotions	VPFA@virginia.edu (and P&T Committee)
Change of Title (These are anyone changing tracks, schools, or departments from the one they were originally hired in.)	VPFA@virginia.edu
Special Salary Actions	Workday Data Report
Resignations	Workday Data Report
Retirements	Workday Data Report
Executive Appointments & Re-Appointments	Internal correspondence
Executive Elections & Re-Elections	Internal correspondence
Emeritus Elections	VPFA@virginia.edu
Deaths	Advancement report, internal correspondence
Corrections	facultyactions@virginia.edu

 

In addition to the sections above, the FAS handles special numbered actions personally through internal provost office correspondence. These are individually numbered sections for certain types of executive appointments. Some of these are elections requiring BOV approval and others are announced as a courtesy, as follows:

Special Executive Appointments Elected by or Announced to the Board of Visitors

Numbered Item	Type of Action
President	Election
Vice Presidents	Election
Rector	Election
Vice Rector	Election
Chief Operating Officer	Election
Provost	Election
Secretary to the BOV	Election
Deans	Announcement
Vice Provosts	Announcement
University Architect	Announcement
University Building Official	Announcement
Chief Audit Executive	Announcement
President’s Chief of Staff	Announcement

Formal Faculty Titles 

Formal faculty titles as they are presented to the board and as they should be keyed in the UVA HR Workday system should always follow conventions below (including identifying an academic home area):

Formal Faculty Title Examples

Track	Titles
Tenure-Track	Assistant Professor of Politics
Tenured	Associate Professor of Politics
General Faculty - Teaching Track	Assistant Professor of Politics, General Faculty
General Faculty - Research Track	Research Assistant Professor of Politics
General Faculty - Practice Track	Assistant Professor of Practice in Politics

Note: The above titles do not apply to the School of Medicine.

Additional Details by Specific Action Type

Elections (New Hires) 

1. Academic titles are governed by policy and must be formatted in alignment with policy in order to be included in the FPAs. 
2. Biographical sketches are compiled from information keyed from faculty CVs, including degrees and work history. They appear in a special format for the purposes of the FPAs and should clearly reveal the faculty member’s qualifications for the position to which they are being hired. Typically, the work history for individuals being elected to the faculty for the first time should cover the period from the terminal degree to the year of hire or at least 10 years’ worth of experience.
3. The terminology “academic” and “annual” have specific meanings in relation to FPAs. These terms are used to qualify salaries and appointment terms. An academic salary is paid over 9 months whereas an annual salary is paid over 12. An individual cannot have a term that is academic and a salary that is annual. 
4. Academic terms typically begin on August 25 or mid-year, on December 25. When faculty arrive early or late in the academic year special terminology is used.
5. When a new senior faculty member is hired and offered tenure, the tenure review must go through the department, school, and provost office for approval prior to tenure appearing on the FPAs. Individuals hired with conditional tenure offers should not go to the board as an election until their tenure has been approved at the provost-level. On occasion, such hires may be included for BOV-approval with an initial five-year term. Following provost review and approval, the tenure action would then be presented at a subsequent meeting. (Submit to VPFA@virginia.edu)
6. The FAS will submit expedited tenure approvals to UVA HR for entering into Workday. Senior hires undergoing expedited tenure review should be entered in Workday as “tenured pending review” prior to approval.

Named Professorships (Endowed Chairs) 

1. A named professorship, sometimes referred to as an endowed chair, is a professorship funded by an endowment, typically a gift to the university. These professorships are established by resolution of the BOV and are constrained by any restrictions detailed in the enabling language of the gift agreement.
2. When a new or current faculty member is elected to a named professorship, the election must be approved in advance by the EVPP. No election will go forward without this approval. (Submit to VPFA@virginia.edu
   
   Requests should include: 
   • The official name of the named professorship in question
   • The faculty member’s full name and current title
   • The names of any other named professorships the faculty member currently holds or will be departing
   • The effective date of the proposed professorship
   • If the professorship will be held without term, or the term being proposed
3. After approval, the FAS will enter the action on the FPAs for proofreading. After BOV approval, the FAS will submit the appointment to UVA HR to key into Workday.
4. The title for the named professorship must appear in the FPA exactly as it was established by the BOV.
5. Regarding new endowments: A faculty member cannot be elected to an endowed chair at the same meeting in which the chair itself is being established. The election must go to a subsequent meeting.

Special Salary Actions

1. Anytime an individual faculty member’s base salary changes, it must be approved by the board.
2. Merit increases are taken to the board as a single action item for all faculty in a separate part of the executive session and not as part of the individual personnel actions.
3. Ad hoc (out-of-cycle) faculty salary actions must be entered into and approved in Workday prior to going to the board. (submit through workday or to VPFA@virginia.edu)
4. See reference: “SALARY ACTIONS”

Promotions

1. Promotion and tenure for most faculty will occur as part of an annual review process by the P&T Committee. These are referred to as “on-cycle” promotions. They are posted in the June Faculty Personnel Actions for Board Approval.
2. Throughout the academic year, the VPFA may also conduct “off-cycle” promotion and expedited tenure reviews, for example for retention purposes.
3. Off-cycle promotion and expedited tenure decisions require approval via VPFA@ first. (Submit to VPFA@virginia.edu)
4. Subsequent to board approval, the FAS sends these decisions to UVA HR to key into Workday.

Special note: When a faculty member is promoted from lecturer or instructor to Assistant Professor they are presented to the BOV for approval as an election instead of appearing here in the promotion section (they are being newly elected to a professorial ranks), including a biographical sketch. The work history will include their preceding years at UVA.

Resignations and Retirements 

1. Members of the teaching faculty who do not intend to return to the University for the upcoming academic year are expected to indicate their intention in writing to their dean or department chair as soon as possible but no later than March 1 for retirements and May 15^th for resignations of the academic year in which he/she intends to retire/ resign.
2. SFAMs should submit resignations or retirements to UVA HR as soon as possible.
3. Resignations should be entered in Workday with a specific type of reason (leaving the area, found another position, etc.) We no longer show this reason in the action in the FPAs but still need to review it.
4. Retirees with associate or full professor rank and ten or more years of service at UVA may be nominated by their school for emeritus (see below).

Elections to Emeritus

1. Basic criteria for emeritus require the faculty member to be retiring from UVA, with associate or full professorial rank, having served for at least ten years. Faculty retiring having held a named professorship for at least five years will hold the named title in emeritus.
2. Emeritus status is an honor; meeting the criteria in the policy does not automatically convey emeritus rank to a faculty member. The faculty member must be recommended by his or her department and school.
3. Any faculty meeting the criteria for emeritus can be nominated by their department to their dean. The dean then requests approval from the EVPP. (Submit to VPFA@virginia.edu)
   
   Requests should include: 
   • The faculty member’s full name and current title
   • The names of any named professorships the faculty member currently holds or will be departing
   • The date of hire
   • The date of retirement
4. Academic deans with at least 10 years of service as dean may be elected as Dean Emeritus prior to retiring as faculty. A faculty member may become dean emeritus while still holding a current faculty position (they do not need to retire).
5. The Provost Faculty Actions Manager takes these elections to the board for approval, and then submits the list to UVA HR for keying into Workday.
6. Faculty receiving emeritus appointments are not terminated. An unpaid assignment is created for the emeritus appointment.
7. If the faculty member is retiring prior to the board of visitors meeting, UVA HR will keep them in Workday as contingent so they do not lose their access to university systems.
8. Emeritus appointments should appear on the same FPAs as the faculty’s retirement action.
9. As soon as the Board of Visitors approves an election to emeritus, the Provost Faculty Actions Specialist will forward a list to Parking and Transportation on the next business day following the meeting. Thereafter any new emeritus faculty member can go to Parking and Transportation to pick up their “Gold” parking pass. Parking and Transportation will not release these passes prior to board approval.
10. All retiring faculty elected emeritus from the year prior will be invited in April to the Faculty Emeriti Retirement Dinner with the president, provost, and deans. Their biographies will be featured in a printed booklet, and they will receive a captain’s chair with a brass engraved name plate. Beginning in February, FAS will collect high resolution photographs and biographical sketches from SFAM for the booklet.

Deaths

1. The Board acknowledges in the faculty personnel actions when a retired former professorial faculty member has passed away and sends a letter of condolence to the next of kin.
2. Email the FAS if you become aware of the passing of a faculty member from your school.
3. SFAM may be asked for assistance providing contact information for next of kin.

UVA Wise 

1. All of the above actions are repeated for the The University of Virrginia’s College at Wise in a separate section at the end of the report.
2. UVA Wise has its own promotion and tenure process and committee, and their promotions typically appear on the September docket.
3. UVA Wise salaries are all spread out over 12 months, but this is not the same thing as an annual, 12-month salary and should not be confused. They spread their 9 month salaries over 12 paychecks.

Additional Notes - General Conventions

• “Dr.” is used as a prefix only when a faculty member has an M.D.
• Middle names are always abbreviated to an initial
• [t] is used to precede all actions pertaining to tenured faculty
• “Without term” means the appointment has no end date, but this phrase is generally only used for disambiguation purposes. No mention of end date implies tenure.