Executive Policy 9.201 Executive Policy 9.201

Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Directive

Executive Policy Chapter 9, Human Resources
Executive Policy EP 9.201, Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Directive
Effective Date:  October 2014
Prior Dates Amended:  September 1976; October 2013
Responsible Office:  Vice President for Administration, Office of Human Resources
Governing Board of Regents Policy RP 9.206, Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plans.
Review Date:  August 2019

The Board of Regents Policies, RP 9.206, Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plans provides that the University administration – namely chancellors and vice presidents - are to develop and maintain a “Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plan.”  The President  is responsible for implementing this mandate and is delegated authority to approve plans developed under this directive  This document constitutes the President’s directive to the chancellors and vice presidents and appropriate parameters for developing a renewal and vitality plan.  It represents a commitment to the premise that an essential element in the success of a good college or university is the continuing intellectual vitality of its faculty and staff.

No policy specific or unique definitions apply.

A. Background

    Historically, colleges and universities have obtained, maintained and retained quality faculty and staff when institutional policies and conditions have encouraged, rewarded, and committed the institution to faculty and staff revitalization as a continuing and normal aspect of its mission.  Among those policies and practices most commonly present in the most successful institutions have been the following:

    1. An unwavering commitment within the faculty and staff, the administration, and the governing board to academic freedom and a sound concept of academic tenure.

    2. An unimpeachable rigorous review and personnel system that emphasizes quality performance, that recruits, retains and rewards the most productive and self-revitalizing professionals, and counsels and encourages the development or separation and relocation of others.

    3. The commitment of resources that enables faculty and staff to engage in continuing professional growth, facilitate sustained professional contributions in their field of expertise, broaden professional competencies, acquire new ones, and apply appropriate professional self-evaluation and assessment.

    4. Policies and a planning process that emphasize academic governance and an unfaltering effort to integrate long term academic planning, professional considerations in the appropriate selection and separation of faculty and staff, and the traditions of academic freedom and tenure.

    In responding to the conditions enumerated, these four traditions must be preserved and enhanced.

B. Objectives of a Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plan

    The accomplishments of the University of Hawai‘i through its dedicated and highly professional faculty and staff are evidence enough of vitality and self-renewal as a normal state of the institution.  The purpose of the Plan for each Unit is to address the contextual factors described above and to develop an organized and systematic effort to improve the conditions for assuring continuing faculty and staff renewal and vitality.  The goal sought or realized is not new, but the commitment is renewed to strengthen and create the conditions that assure the recruitment, retention, and revitalization of the professionals which carry out the primary missions of the University.

    The University Administration does not propose to accomplish the goal of renewal by mandating one uniform structure or Plan for the entire University which consists of several unlike major Units.  Rather, each campus or program is encouraged to develop a continuing organized effort uniquely suited to the mission, needs, and problems of each subunit.

    There are common purposes to be served in this effort, however, which include the need to:

    1. Nurture the intellectual vitality of the faculty and staff and foster its continuing revitalization within the tenure system;

    2. Improve the quality of instructional, research, and service programs;

    3. Increase the flexibility of the faculty resources base to respond to changing societal needs and student demands during periods of scarce resources;

    4. Provide for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in the utilization of existing faculty and staff resources.

C. Key Principles for the Development and Usage of the Plan

    1. The Plan should focus on all categories of personnel, including:

        a. Faculty

        b. Executive/Managerial

        c. Administrative, Professional and Technical

        d. Civil Service

    2. There should be appropriate and representative faculty and/or staff involvement in the development of the Plan.

    3. The final proposed Plan of each campus/program should also be made available to the faculty and staff of that Unit.

    4. The Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plan is to be utilized by each Chancellor and in turn the President in reviewing recommendations concerning EDP/ADPs, programs, budgets, appointments, promotions, tenure, and other related personnel and program actions.

    5. The Plan of each Unit is to be updated as part of each biennial budget process and shall serve as a supporting document that accompanies each Unit’s proposed budget to the President.

    6. The Plan may provide for phasing in time or resources.

D. Format of the Plan

    1. Section I. Purpose of the Unit Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plan in relation to University’s strategic goals and to the unique needs of the campus or program concerned; and a restatement of the concepts of tenure, academic freedom, and performance review, and the mutual obligations of the institution and the faculty and staff implied in these concepts

    2. Section II. A systematic and thorough faculty and professional staff career improvement program, including the following:

        a. A clear articulation of the various means (currently and planned policies and programs) for nurturing, improving faculty and professional staff intellectual vitality, upgrading of professional competencies and an identification of incentives and rewards (current and planned) for outstanding performance.

        b. Identification of program areas in which special efforts should be made to assist faculty and staff to obtain professional expertise in a different or allied field in order to shift the application to areas of higher anticipated need and actual demand.

        c. A clarification of the goals, purposes, and objectives of sabbatical and other professional leaves and the means for strengthening their implementation in relationship to:

            (1) Personnel and program needs (especially in securing timely notice and in recruiting temporary replacements for faculty on leave),

            (2) Faculty and staff renewal and turnover,

            (3) And to any policy changes adopted or recommended (Units University, Board, etc.) to accomplish these changes.

        d. A deliberate plan for coordinating the career improvement program with faculty and staff review components.

    3. Section III. Comprehensive Faculty and Staff Appointment and Position Assignment Plans and Policies

        a. Program Directions and Priorities

            (1) Estimated student demand by year by program (including program changes) and plans and means for assuring a balance of enrollment to program resources by each of the various alternatives (new money and positions, reallocation of current positions, reduction in enrollment).  (Past and present trend analyses should be included to show the relationship of resources to demand.)

            (2) Priorities. (If sufficient resources are not available to do it all, which programs and needs have the highest and lowest priorities?)

            (3) Personnel needs by qualifications ranks, specialties, etc., by programs over a six-year period, and a planned recruitment and reallocation timetable for meeting those needs, including information regarding the mix of faculty (beginning, intermediate, and senior) desirable by Unit and program in respect to future program needs, supported by data on tenure and rank and other categories of personnel past and projected for the 6-year period.

        b. An identified faculty and staff “turnover” percentage that is desirable, the recent past’s turnover rate, and means of improving quality with “turnover,” or means of improving retention if desirable.

        c. The identification of policies and means to maintain a specific number of positions to be utilized in non-continuing, non-permanent, non-tenurable appointments, and means to relocate tenured or tenure-track appointees if necessary.

        d. The delineation of responsibility for executing this aspect of the plan.

    4. Section IV. Comprehensive system of periodic review of faculty and staff

        a. The identification of a desirable differentiation of reviews for tenured as related to non-tenured faculty and staff.

        b. Clear articulation of criteria, frequency, and possible results of review of both tenured and non-tenured Faculty and staff including plans and means for recognizing performance, the purposes and outcomes planned for such review, and by whom the review is to be conducted.

        c. Inclusion of plans for executive and administrative personnel in line with University’s strategic goals.

    5. Section V. Cost Section

        a. Costs of enrollment-related and program change (separate) personnel needs for 6-year period.

        b. Special costs of any aspect of the Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plan as proposed.

        c. Other cost factors.

By Board of Regents Policies, RP 9.206, Faculty and Staff Renewal and Vitality Plans, the President is delegated the authority to approve each unit’s faculty and staff renewal and vitality plan.

Office of Human Resources
Telephone: (808) 956-8458
OHR Website

Office of the Vice President for Administration
Telephone: (808) 956-6405
Email:  vpadmin@hawaii.edu

    A. Link to superseded Executive Policies in old format https://www.hawaii.edu/policy/archives/ep/

    B. Link to Administrative Procedures in old format https://www.hawaii.edu/policy/archives/apm/sysap.php

No Exhibits and Appendices found

    President