A-to-Z Index

Policy #2113
Instructional Faculty Contract Changes

Date of Current Revision: May 2002
Responsible Office: Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
  1. PURPOSE

    This policy provides the procedures for changing the employment contracts of faculty members, including promotions, award of tenure, demotions, changes in title, rank, status, type of appointment, salary, and special assignments.

  2. AUTHORITY

    The Board of Visitors has the authority to enact personnel policies for all employees of the university. Where this authority has not been exercised by the board, it is delegated to the President.

  3. DEFINITIONS

    Administrative & Professional Faculty:
    Sometimes referred to as 'A&P Faculty', this is a faculty member whose primary responsibility is management or administration but is not teaching (as opposed to instructional faculty). In the past, A&P Faculty were sometimes referred to as 'T&R Administrators.' However, that terminology is no longer used commonly.

    Instructional Faculty:
    The members of the faculty who have responsibilities that include teaching, research and service as the majority of their duties. Sometimes referred to as 'T&R Faculty'.

    PAR
    Personnel Action Request form

  4. APPLICABILITY

    This policy relates to the change in employment contracts of all instructional faculty members, including full-time and part-time appointments; adjunct and visiting appointments; tenured, tenure-track, renewable term, and untenured appointments; academic year, calendar year, fixed term appointments and interim appointments.

  5. POLICY

    When a faculty member is hired into an employment position at the university, the terms and conditions of his or her employment are established in writing. In order to change any of the terms or conditions of that employment relationship, the university requires the use of a PAR to document and provide an approval mechanism for these changes. The procedures in this policy must be followed in order to change the terms of an employment contract for an instructional faculty member at James Madison University.

  6. PROCEDURES

    Contract changes can be made only when a PAR is initiated by the faculty member's supervisor and forwarded through appropriate channels to the president. The PAR shall be used to make any contract changes. When using a PAR to make faculty contract changes, the initiator must indicate the change as an action on the form and, if needed, attach an explanation to the form justifying the action.

    When an approved PAR form is received by the office of human resources to accomplish a contract change, that office will prepare a revised contract to reflect the change. Copies of the revised contract will be forwarded for verification to the academic unit head, dean, and Vice President for Academic Affairs before being sent to the president for his signature. The office of human resources will obtain the president's signature on the revised contract and send it to the faculty member with a deadline for acceptance.

    The faculty member will be required to return the contract to the office of human resources in order for it to become effective. Failure to return the revised contract may be construed as a resignation of employment.

    The president will notify faculty members of promotions and award of tenure by personal letter.

  7. RESPONSIBILITIES

    Faculty members are responsible for returning signed revised contract forms to the Office of Human Resources.

    Academic unit heads and direct supervisors are responsible for following the procedures for changing the terms of employment for the faculty members in their academic units, and for submitting the PAR to the Office of Human Resources in a timely manner.

    Deans are responsible for reviewing and approving all faculty employment contract change practices and procedures used within their colleges.

    The Vice President for Academic Affairs is responsible for reviewing and approving all faculty employment contract change practices and procedures for instructional faculty.

    The Director of Human Resources is responsible for processing the PARs changing the faculty member contracts of employment, and for generating new contracts based on those changes, for obtaining the President's signature, and for obtaining the faculty member's signature on the newly revised contract.

  8. SANCTIONS

    Sanctions will be commensurate with the severity and/or frequency of the offense and may include termination of employment.

  9. EXCLUSIONS

    The procedures detailed in this policy do not apply to A&P faculty or to part-time faculty members.

    For the policy on part-time faculty members, see Policy 2114. The policy on terms and conditions of employment for A&P faculty members is found in Policy 1335.

  10. INTERPRETATION

    The authority to interpret this policy rests with the president, and is generally delegated to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Approved:
May 2002
Linwood H. Rose, President
Index of Terms

Award of tenure
Changes in appointment
Changes in contracts
Changes in rank
Changes in status
Changes in title
Demotion
Faculty contracts
Promotion
Salary increases
Special Assignments
Tenure