I. Evaluating the Service of Department Chairs
A Department Chair who discharges the administrative duties with thoroughness and distinction and who gives effective academic leadership to the department cannot have much time left for teaching and research. It will be difficult enough to maintain oneself as a scholar and to keep abreast of developments in the field. It may be impossible for him/her to satisfy the normal criteria for advancement in salary or rank in such a way as to permit the advancements to which he/she is entitled. We must acknowledge the fact that he/she has had to give up to administrative duties time he/she would otherwise have been able to devote to teaching and scholarship, and we must take into account the extent and quality of the administrative service in considering him/her for merit increases and for promotions. The principle involved is that academic leadership is, in itself, a significant academic activity. It is entirely appropriate to award merit increases to a department chair primarily on the grounds of excellence of service in the Chairship, and to award accelerated increases for particularly outstanding service.
Promotions in rank for Department Chairs, and advancement to the higher steps (above Step V) of the Professorship or to an above-scale salary, should also be considered with this criterion in mind. However, such advancements are of greater significance than merit increases within rank up to Professor, Step V, and should not be justified wholly on the basis of administrative service. Nevertheless, although promotion from Associate Professor to Professor requires evidence of intellectual attainment and growing distinction, substantial evidence of these qualities may well be found in the way in which a really successful chair performs those duties. In the case of promotion from Assistant Professor to tenure rank, it would be undesirable to waive the requirement of "superior intellectual attainment, as evidenced both in teaching and research or creative achievement." But an Assistant Professor who has served effectively as a department chair has evidenced a considerable degree of intellectual maturity if he/she has provided academic leadership for persons of higher rank, and this certainly should count heavily in considering his/her promotion to tenure. Advancement to the highest professorial salary steps or to an above-scale salary would require substantial justification in addition to service in the Chair; but time spent as a department chair should not be allowed to become an obstacle to merit increases of this kind.
In assessing the merits of a Department Chair, it will of course be necessary to follow the regular procedures of review, including review by the Council on Academic Personnel. However, a special effort should be made to assure that Chairs are not passed over, and the advice of Deans and other administrative officers will be particularly important in such cases. After a Chair leaves the position, all further advancements in salary or rank should be judged by the regular criteria. Advancements in salary or rank should not be delayed in any way by reason of accelerations received on the grounds of distinguished service as a Chair.
1. Senate Review
Senate review is waived with respect to normal merits and one-year accelerated merit increases.
2. Approval Authority
All merits for individuals holding appointments as Department Chairs are subject to approval by the Chancellor.
II. Evaluating the Service of Provosts, Deans and Directors
Excerpt from "Guidelines for Compensation of Provosts of Colleges, Academic Deans, and Directors of Organized Research Units":
"In considering promotions and within-scale professorial salary rates of Divisional, Associate, and Assistant Deans during their terms of administrative service, each Chancellor is authorized to give special consideration to superior academic leadership and administrative service as evidence in support of the proposed advancements on a normal schedule, or, in exceptionally meritorious cases, on an accelerated schedule. However, such considerations shall not exclude evaluation according to the established criteria for advancement of appointees in the Professor series, and all the established review procedures shall be followed."
Revised 10/13/99
Web page updated 11/7/03
