DIVISIONAL DEANS
RE: Renewal of the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellows Hiring Incentive Program
I am happy to report that the Office of the President has announced that the President’s Postdoctoral Fellows Hiring Incentive Program will continue for another three years (2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19) beginning with appointments effective July 1, 2016. The program provides a five-year advance on faculty FTE to campuses that hire current or former President’s or Chancellors’ postdoctoral fellows into ladder-rank faculty positions. The scope of the hiring incentive program will again include participants from both the UC President’s and Chancellors’ Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs for Academic Diversity.
In addition, the Office of the President will support additional hires as well as continue the new start-up hiring incentive for fellows in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. The start-up hiring incentive provides up to 20% of start-up costs for faculty in STEM fields if the total start-up costs exceed $400K, with a cap of $200K per hire. The total start-up funds that may be awarded to any individual campus are limited to $400K per year. All disciplines are eligible for the start-up incentive, as long as a fellow’s research is in a STEM field.
Below are the incentive program guidelines and campus procedures for making a hire under this program. The Office of the President previously established a cap on the number of hiring incentives to 12 hires each academic year with incentives awarded in chronological order by the date the fellow accepts the offer of appointment. In addition, as a result of the new initiative in the STEM fields, five additional hires have been allocated.
If you are interested in taking advantage of the hiring incentive, I encourage you to look at the list of eligible fellows at your earliest convenience. Please keep Nancy Furber (furber@ucsc.edu) in the Academic Personnel Office informed of your progress, particularly once a potential hire has been identified, as we are required to report campus progress to the Office of the President.
Guidelines for hiring President’s or Chancellors’ Postdoctoral Fellows
Information about the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, as well as a complete list of eligible President’s and Chancellors’ postdoctoral fellows is available at http://ppfp.ucop.edu/info/fellowship-recipients/hiring-incentive.html.
General guidelines for the program:
- Eligible candidates are current or former President’s Postdoctoral Fellows since 1996 or Chancellors’ Postdoctoral Fellows since 2005.
- Fellows are to be considered for ladder-rank faculty positions effective beginning July 1, 2016 and continuing through 2017-19.
- Fellows are not eligible if they currently hold a ladder-rank appointment at a UC campus.
- Eligible fellows may be hired either through an open search or from targeted outreach efforts; for the latter, the Office of the President has preauthorized a waiver of recruitment for eligible candidates.
- Salary dollars will be allocated at the Assistant Professor III level for appointments paid on the Regular professorial salary scale and at the Assistant Professor II level for appointments paid on the Business, Economics, and Engineering professorial salary scale. The affiliated division will assume the costs of any upgrades.
- Hires may be made at all ranks, assistant through full; however, divisional allocation of salary dollars remains at the same assistant level.
Campus procedures
If an eligible fellow is hired as the top candidate from an open search, no additional request for recruitment authorization is required. If an eligible fellow is proposed as an additional hire from an open search or is identified as the result of targeted outreach efforts, the hiring dean must submit an off-cycle recruitment authorization request to the CP/EVC. With the exception of the current initiative in the STEM fields, UCOP does not provide supplemental start-up funds; however, start-up will be covered per normal campus policy. If you are requesting a hire in a STEM field, include the total proposed start-up request as part of your off-cycle recruitment request. Although a waiver of recruitment has been granted, budgetary approval, including consultation with the Senate Committee on Planning and Budget, is required. The request should detail how the proposed hire will be consistent with departmental plans and divisional priorities, including current recruitment plans, and it must also identify how the FTE will be funded at the end of the five-year period.
All hires under the President’s Postdoctoral Fellows Hiring Incentive Program will follow normal departmental and CAP review. The criteria for appointment are the same as other appointments and are found in APM 210 at https://ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/apm/apm-210.pdf.
Effects on campus planning
Hiring a new faculty member through the President’s Postdoctoral Fellows Hiring Incentive Program should support department plans and divisional goals. It is possible, however, that a potential hire may present new opportunities to reevaluate priorities within established plans. Below is information on how such a hire affects campus FTE counts.
• FTE is provided to the campus from UCOP, which in turn goes to the department.
• FTE is returned to UCOP if former fellow leaves the campus within five years.
• After five years, UCOP will retrieve an FTE off the top of campus allocations; there is no net gain to the campus.
• On campus, the hiring division must identify a division-held, vacant FTE at the end of the five-year period.
You may decide not to take advantage of the President’s Postdoctoral Fellows Hiring Incentive Program at this time. However, you may want to suggest to departments that they look at the lists of fellows and begin efforts to introduce these individuals to our campus. The current fellows have access to travel funds to visit UC campuses and can be invited to present research or give job talks.
Since its implementation, the hiring incentive program has been very successful with over 135 fellows joining the UC faculty since 2000. UCSC has hired 17 faculty members under this program, including four in 2014-15, and we hope to see additional hires in the future.
If you have any questions or need additional information about the program, please contact Nancy Furber in the Academic Personnel Office at furber@ucsc.edu or x9-4779.
Sincerely,
Alison Galloway
Campus Provost and
Executive Vice Chancellor
cc:
Chair Brenneis, Academic Senate
Analyst Burke, Planning and Budget
Vice Chancellor Delaney, Planning and Budget
Vice Provost Lee, Academic Affairs
Assistant Vice Chancellor Peterson, Academic Personnel
Director Sahni, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Divisional Academic Personnel Coordinators
Administrative Records
