Revised Review Process for Job Openings in Academic Affairs

June 22, 2022

To:      Academic Affairs Leadership
           Deans
           Department Chairs
           Directors
           Assistant Deans
           Business Officers

From: David Marshall, Executive Vice Chancellor

Re:     Revised Review Process for Job Openings in Academic Affairs

In a revision to the campus requirement to review Job Opening Requests, Academic Affairs will no longer require that permission be sought to refill existing positions. Effective immediately, units are required to submit requests only for new staff and non-instructional academic employee job recruitments, following the process and using the criteria listed below. 

Review of New Staff Job Openings:

If a new position is determined to be mission critical and/or essential to business operations, a department preparer will submit a Job Opening Request. The form will automatically route to the Department Chair/Director for approval. It will then be routed to the next level of authority, most often the College, School, or Divisional Dean or Associate Vice Chancellor. Following this, the form will be sent to my office via Dorothy Satomi, Director of Finance and Administration. After a careful review, you will be notified if the request is approved for recruitment. 
 
When completing the “Rationale for Filling the Job Opening” section of the Job Opening Request form, please address the following revised and updated questions:

• Is the role mission critical and/or essential to operations?
• If there is a budget reduction, would this position still be a priority and not subject to a lay off even if positions have to be eliminated?
• Will a deferral in filling the position result in significant operation disruption or place compliance at risk?
• Are there any qualified staff in the unit who could take on the additional duties or have duties reassigned?
• Is there any other temporary solution that could address the staffing need until we have more information about the budget?
• Will this position be funded by an extramural research grant? If so, what are the projected dates of the award?
• Have administrative processes been reviewed to ensure that non-essential tasks can be eliminated (especially in the current remote workplace) in order to reassign essential tasks to others in the office?

Please include an organization chart that shows the placement of this new position, the approved job description, and any other supporting documents.

If you have any questions regarding Job Opening Requests that may be in process, please contact Dorothy Satomi (dorothy.satomi@ucsb.edu).

Review of New Academic Employee Openings:

Academic employees will continue to have the following review process:

• There will be no change to the current process of hiring Senate faculty.
• Hiring of other instructional employees (Unit 18 lecturers, Associates, and Teaching Assistants) are to be reviewed by the appropriate Dean in the context of Temporary Sub -0 allocations.
• There are no changes to the current processes for hiring of non-instructional academic employees (e.g., professional researcher, project scientist, specialist, postdoc, Graduate Student Researcher, academic coordinators, etc.) paid on extramural funding.
• Prior approval will be required for the hiring of non-instructional academic employees into new positions paid on state funds. The department will need to complete the Academic Employee Job Opening Request form. The request form, including the departmental endorsements, should be submitted to Helly Kwee in Academic Personnel (helly.kwee@ucsb.edu) for further routing and review. If the request is approved, a copy of the finalized Academic Job Opening Request form must be submitted with the appointment case.

Although the campus still faces budget challenges, and it is always a good idea to reassess position descriptions and program and support needs, we understand that our problem now is not filling too many positions but rather filling crucial positions quickly enough. We hope that this will allow us to expedite mission-critical recruitments. Academic Affairs is also consulting with Human Resources to look for further opportunities to streamline recruitment processes and help departments fill positions. We also are working with the deans to clarify policies and practices related to staff retentions, 

Thank you.