Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
This rule applies to faculty members
not governed by the collective bargaining agreement between the university of
Akron and Akron-AAUP.
(A)
Preamble.
(1)
The board of trustees, in consultation with appropriate
members of the university community (to include the president, the senior vice
president and provost, and the vice president for finance and administration),
will determine when a financial exigency exists at the university, and does
hereby establish and promulgate these guidelines.
(2)
These guidelines
are board guidelines and are adopted to inform all affected thereby. They are
not intended to, nor do they impair any existing rights or grant new rights to
any person or persons.
(3)
The board reserves to itself the resolution of any
financial exigency in accordance with its statutory obligation.
(4)
The board does
recognize and respect the rights of all those affected by its decision and
within the limits of the financial exigency and the board's duty, the board
will respect and consider their rights.
(B)
Guidelines.
(1)
Consultation.
Early in the process of making
recommendations concerning program reduction, the university president, the
senior vice president and provost and other appropriate administrators shall
make a good faith effort to consult with deans, department heads, faculty, and
students. It is especially important that faculty members whose educational
programs or positions may be adversely affected have an opportunity to be
heard, through the faculty advisory committee, by the administration. It is
recognized, however, that the ultimate university decision-making authority,
both as to the decision to carry out the academic retrenchment and as to the
timing of that decision, rests in the board of trustees.
(2)
Data and
documentation.
The university administration must make
a good faith effort to determine and to explain clearly the nature of the
fiscal limitations, and to establish appropriate educational
priorities.
(3)
Procedures for faculty consultation: the faculty
advisory committee.
(a)
There shall be a faculty advisory committee to discuss
proposals from the university administration concerning academic retrenchment
due to financial exigency.
(b)
The faculty
advisory committee shall consist of all the elected faculty members then
serving on faculty senate. When there is need for this committee, it may be
assembled upon the call of either the university president or five of its
members; when assembled, the committee will proceed to elect its own chairman,
vice chairman, and secretary. These three committee officers shall be from
three different colleges (with the university library being defined as a
separate academic college for these purposes).
(4)
Administrative
recommendation and faculty discussion.
After the university administration has assembled the
pertinent data and documentation, and has prepared its specific recommendation
for program reduction, but before it has taken any further action on the
matter, it will report its recommendation to the faculty advisory committee for
discussion and advice. Any such discussion shall not delay the implementation
of the program reduction.
(5)
Academic due
process.
When program reductions in response to
financial exigency involve termination of faculty appointments, special care
must be taken to protect and honor accepted procedures and rights appropriate
to a faculty member's tenured or probationary status. Upon appeal, faculty
members will have an opportunity to be heard through established university
grievance procedures. Termination because of financial exigency must be
distinguished from a proceeding that might lead to dismissal for
cause.
(6)
Procedures for faculty reduction in force (RIF).
(a)
A faculty
reduction in force (RIF) shall, whenever possible, be treated as a
layoff--temporary in nature--not as a termination. The released faculty
member's place will not be filled by a replacement for a period of three years,
unless the released faculty member has been offered reappointment and sixty
days within which to accept or decline.
(b)
Tenured members
of the faculty shall be retained in preference to probationary appointees. This
preferential status shall include wherever possible and practicable an
opportunity to transfer or readapt to other programs within the department,
college or university.
(c)
If a faculty member wishes, he may accept early
retirement or transfer from full-time to part-time service. However, such
actions shall be governed by the same guidelines and procedural safe-guards as
those which operate in other situations brought about by financial
exigency.
(d)
The following objective criteria will be considered in
determining the order in which faculty members are to be released in the event
of a necessary faculty reduction in force:
(i)
All temporary or
part-time faculty within the affected program will be released before any
probationary faculty.
(ii)
All probationary faculty within the affected program
will be released before any tenured faculty.
(iii)
Within any
academic department, discipline, or other appropriate administrative division,
faculty reduction in force will proceed according to seniority within each
classification of faculty status defined as tenured, probationary, temporary,
part-time: The least senior faculty member in terms of length of academic
service at the university is released first, followed by the next least senior,
and so on until the most senior faculty member is reached.
(a)
In computing
seniority, the most pertinent point is total full-time service at the
university of Akron (in any of the ranks of instructor, assistant professor,
associate professor or professor). (Also included herein are those who occupy
the position of full-time lecturer.) Time of service in a particular rank, or
following tenure, is a less important consideration.
(b)
In extraordinary
and compelling circumstances--as where a junior tenured faculty member is the
only member of a department (or other appropriate administrative division) who
is competent (as judged on the basis of training and experience and documented
by scholarly and/or creative contributions in that field) to teach a needed
program or set of courses--the seniority principle may be disregarded. In such
situations, however, the university administration will provide the adversely
affected faculty members with a written explanation of the decision to
disregard seniority in the instance in
question.
(7)
Rights and
benefits for faculty members released because of financial exigency.
(a)
Before being
released from the university, the faculty member will have the right to fill
any existing faculty vacancy for which he is qualified, or to transfer to any
other college or division or department and to fill any vacancy therein for
which he is qualified. His qualifications will be determined principally by his
teaching experience and his academic training.
(b)
Faculty members
who have been released and later recalled will retain as many fringe benefits
as is legally possible.
(c)
A faculty member released due to financial exigency
will receive from the university, to commence at the time of release, a
one-year continuance of his/her university health insurance policy without
charge. He or she will also be given the option to continue his or her health
insurance for a second year by paying premiums at the group
rate.
(8)
Timing.
The university president should provide
as much advance notice as possible in making financial exigency decisions. In
cases where faculty appointments are to be terminated, timely notice of
termination or nonreappointment must be given. In extreme situations, if timely
notice cannot be given, financial compensation to the faculty member
proportional to the lateness of the notice may be an appropriate substitute for
full notice.
(C)
For purposes of
this rule, a "financial exigency" is defined as a situation requiring reduction
or reallocation of resources or reorganization or elimination of programs which
cannot be accomplished through normal academic, budgetary, and personnel
processes. The emergency may be caused by a decline in student enrollments, a
reduction in state appropriations or allotments, a loss of income from
non-state sources, or some serious event or condition requiring anticipated or
unanticipated major expenditure reductions. The emergency may be
university-wide or it may be restricted to only one school, department,
program, or area.
Replaces: 3359-20- 04.4
