SCR 201 and Related Policy Changes

This webpage provides an overview of the policy changes associated with Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 201. Ongoing revisions to additional policies are being tracked on the OVPAS Policy Review webpage.

SCR 201 Tenure Task Force Phase

The Hawai‘i State Senate issued SCR 201 in 2021, urging the University of Hawai‘i and the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (UHPA) to convene a task force to “examine and assess” the tenure system. SCR 201 requested data regarding tenure, compensation structures, and extramural activities for faculty across a variety of classifications throughout the UH System. The Tenure Task Force authorized under SCR 201 held nine meetings between October 3 and December 9, 2021, solicited feedback on a draft report, and submitted its final Report to Examine and Assess the University’s of Hawai‘i’s Tenure System to the Hawai‘i Legislature in January 2022. While the Task Force recommended that no changes be made to the “way tenure is earned or granted,” the report identified a need to phase out some of the faculty classifications in place at the 4-year campuses in favor of a “more general faculty classification… consistent with other institutions.” The composition of that SCR 201 Tenure Task Force was as follows:

• Randolph Moore, UH Board of Regents Chair
• David Lassner, UH President
• Vassilis Syrmos, Vice President for Research and Innovation
• Christian Fern, UHPA Executive Director
• Debi Hartmann, UHPA Associate Executive Director of Governance
• Ernie Wilson, UH Board of Regents Member
• Debora Halbert, UH Associate Vice President for Academic Programs and Policy (designee for the Director of Collective Bargaining and Employment Relations)

SCR 201 Tenure Task Force Materials

Tenure Task Force Final Report
Tenure Task Force data as of November 19, 2021

SCR 201 Implementation Steering Committee Phase

Following the Tenure Task Force’s submission of its final report to the legislature, the Board of Regents charged the UH administration and the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly (UHPA) to execute the recommendations contained in the report. This resulted in the establishment of an SCR 201 Implementation Steering Committee with the following composition:

• Randolph Moore, UH Board of Regents Chair
• David Lassner, UH President
• Debora Halbert, UH Vice President for Academic Strategy
• Christian Fern, UHPA Executive Director
• Debi Hartmann, UHPA Associate Executive Director of Governance

The committee met biweekly throughout the Spring 2022 semester, with the President providing regular (public) updates as part of the official President’s Report at each Board of Regents meeting. It is important to note that the committee created a work group of “S” and “C” faculty, as well as representatives of the UH administration and UHPA, to examine the specific question of “S” faculty and provide the Implementation Steering Committee with its input. The committee generated a report in November 2022 containing three recommendations, which informed the subsequent examination and revision of existing UH policies:

1. Develop a formal process for addressing the few instances when productivity of a tenured faculty member has declined and they are unable to perform faculty duties satisfactorily.
2. Modify Faculty Classifications.
3. Develop guidelines for general faculty “buyout” of teaching assignments with extramural or other sources of funding in a manner consistent with the new work assignment template for faculty.

In terms of the modification of the faculty classification system, the report explicitly stated that current faculty would be able to retain their assigned classifications and that certain proposed changes might require “consultation and/or negotiations” with UHPA prior to implementation. The report recommended (a) retaining the C faculty classification, (b) combining the I, R, J, M, and S classifications into a single F (faculty) classification, and (c) creating a new P classification for Professors of Practice. The committee also proposed establishing an F2 rank of faculty ineligible for tenure, consistent with the current status of I2 faculty.

Policy Revision and Consultation Phase

The next task consisted of fashioning the committee’s recommendations into a set of draft policy revisions, which would then be shared broadly with faculty members to provide ample opportunity for feedback. Following a round of informal consultation with the UH Officers, the Council of Chief Academic Officers (CCAO), and the Council of Senior Student Affairs Officers (CSSAO) in December 2022 and January 2023, the Vice President for Academic Strategy (VPAS) initiated formal consultation with UH faculty. On February 10, 2023 the VPAS issued a memorandum, entitled “Consultation on Proposed Policy Changes Related to SCR 201,” to the various faculty senates. That memo contained links to proposed revisions to the following eight policies:

• RP 9.202, Classification Plans and Classification Schedules:
• RP 9.206, Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plans (retitled as “Faculty and Staff Professional Development”)
• RP 9.213, Evaluation of Board of Regents’ Appointees
• RP 9.214, Teaching Assignments for Instructional Faculty (retitled as “Work Assignments for Faculty”)
• EP 5.221, Classification of Faculty
• EP 9.201, Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Directive (retitled as “Faculty and Staff Review and Professional Development”)
• EP 9.213, Evaluation of Faculty and Administrative, Professional, and Technical Employees
• EP 9.214, Teaching Assignments for Instructional Faculty (retitled as “Teaching and Workload Assignments for Faculty”)

Faculty members were invited to provide input on any or all of the proposed policy revisions by April 15, 2023, via an online feedback form. This review period was subsequently extended by the Board of Regents, in response to a request from faculty senates.

Review of the draft policies continued through the summer of 2023, with the VPAS conducting a round of informal consultation with the Office of Human Resources, the Office of the General Counsel, and the various campus administrations. A second round of formal consultation with UH faculty commenced on September 1, when the VPAS issued a memorandum entitled “Second Consultation on Proposed Policy Changes Related to SCR 201.” Once again, an opportunity for faculty feedback was provided through an online form, and the October 1, 2023 submission deadline was extended to October 19, following a request from the faculty senates.

Over the course of the Policy Revision and Consultation Phase, the VPAS also met with a large number of faculty constituency groups to solicit input on the proposed policy revisions. These included:

• All-Campus Council of Faculty Senate Chairs (ACCFSC) – monthly
• UH Mānoa Senate Executive Committee
• UH Mānoa Faculty Senate
• Various UH Mānoa Senate Committees
• UH Mānoa College of Education
• UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
• UH Mānoa Library Leadership
• UH Hilo Faculty Congress
• UH West O‘ahu Faculty Senate
• UHPA and UHPA’s Impact Bargaining Negotiating Team

It is important to note that the anticipated impact of the proposed policy revisions on faculty at the four-year campuses was particularly acute, since the planned revisions included changes to the classification system for four-year faculty (but not to the classification system for the UH Community Colleges).

This multi-stage consultation process yielded 155 separate comments through the online feedback form as well as a number of memoranda from different faculty constituent groups. The primary points of concern raised by faculty included (1) a desire to retain the Specialist classification, (2) a desire to preserve the prior verbiage for the Librarian classification, and (3) a desire to preserve the prior verbiage in the Extension Agent classification. VPAS Halbertʻs final report to the Board on November 16, 2023 (SCR 201: Final Report and Policy Revisions) provided an overview of the most significant policy revisions while offering two color-coded examples detailing how faculty feedback prompted revisions to the initial policy language proposed at the start of the consultation process.

The Board of Regents approved the UH administration’s recommended revisions to RP 9.202, RP 9.213, and RP 9.214 while also rescinding RP 9.206 via its November 16, 2023 Action Memorandum.

Implementation Phase

Following Board approval, the project moved into a new phase, which is currently in process. This phase will include impact bargaining with UHPA in 2024 regarding any aspects of the proposed policy revisions that fall within the purview of collective bargaining. We anticipate campus-level implementation to occur by August 2024 so that the new faculty classifications may take effect in the Fall 2024 semester.