ACADEMIC SENATE
DEANS
VICE PROVOSTS
DEPARTMENT CHAIRS
Dear Colleagues:
UC Santa Cruz has been successful in groundbreaking interdisciplinary work, and our faculty have sought generative interdisciplinary connections in their research and teaching. The whole campus benefits when we employ structures that support faculty work across departments. Hence, FTE transfers should rarely be necessary and should only be used when the transfer makes sense for the institution as a whole. They should not be utilized to facilitate research and/or teaching connections for the transferring faculty; rather, the obstacles to those collaborations should be addressed. They may be appropriate when one’s research area has evolved.
Historically, when the transfer has been across divisions, campus policy has not required or expected the receiving division to return an FTE line. In some cases, multiple faculty movements and partner hires have balanced out over time. In other cases, deans have voluntarily returned an FTE line. Some of these transfers, however, have created a feeling of dissatisfaction. In response to concerns raised by both the Senate and Deans, the campus is now considering a change to the FTE transfer policy (CAPM 416.220) to explicitly state an expectation that the receiving division will return an open FTE line to the originating division. Deans would retain the flexibility to waive the FTE return by mutual agreement when there is an expectation of a future compensating action such as a transfer in the other direction, or a partner hire being made in the other division, or when there are other considerations where the deans find it advantageous to waive the FTE return.
The EVC retains approval authority for all transfer proposals, following consultation with the academic senate, regardless of whether an FTE is being returned. The decision will take into consideration the individual faculty member’s request as well as campus programmatic and instructional needs and plans.
Additional edits to the policy have been proposed by APO to clarify language and codify current procedural expectations in cases of interdivisional transfers and divisional appointments. Both clean and redline versions of the proposed revisions are posted online at https://apo.ucsc.edu/policy/policy-under-review.html.
Please direct feedback on the proposed revisions to apo@ucsc.edu no later than Monday, April 8, 2019.
Academic Senate Director
Divisional Academic Personnel Coordinators
Department Managers
