Dear Chancellor Christ,
We write to express our dismay at the continued serious delays to merit and promotion cases for Senate faculty and our lack of confidence in the office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
A decade ago, when the campus was dealing with a less serious backlog of cases, we worked closely with Senate leaders and the Faculty Welfare Committee to address the problem with the then Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Janet Broughton. Vice Provost Broughton was prompt and public in her response which immediately took steps to diagnose what was causing the delays and address the problem. For instance, AP Bears was redesigned to better track where cases were delayed and whether there were identifiable patterns of delay by level of review or type of case.
And yet, here we find ourselves again. Last April we wrote to Vice Provost Victoria Plaut about our concern that there was a significant backlog of cases that was already causing financial and emotional distress to affected faculty. We asked her to inform us ‘what efforts are being undertaken to understand the scale of these delays to personnel cases, what has caused them, and what steps might be taken to ensure that the backlog is quickly cleared so that faculty can again expect to have their cases reviewed and processed by the time of their effective date.’ No plan was forthcoming.
Worse still, by July several junior colleagues let us know that they had been put on bridging appointments until their tenure cases, submitted on time, were concluded. They were given no timeline as to when their cases would be closed. These colleagues were distressed, disillusioned and demoralized by their treatment at this important threshold in their career. That month we wrote twice to Vice Provost Plaut asking her again to outline a plan to resolve the backlog. We received no reply. That in itself is a shocking way to treat an organization that represents a significant number of faculty.
During the Fall we have continued to hear from many colleagues who are still waiting to hear about their cases. Some have complained of real financial hardship, in one case taking out a loan to pay their property tax. Others have been unable to finalize plans to retire, or to sign Pathway to Retirement agreements, until they know their final salary. All have expressed their dismay that there has been no communication from the Vice Provost’s office, or anyone in the senior leadership, about the situation.
It is hard to imagine any other employer treating their employees like this. That any increases in pay will be back-dated to 1 July 2023 is no excuse for this treatment. The uncertainty has generated real distress, created hardship for Senate faculty who are already struggling to afford living in the Bay Area, and have caused some to reconsider their future on campus.
We now understand that the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs has finally provided our Academic Senate leadership and Divisional Committee members with an account of the extent of the problem and some preliminary analysis of why the delays have occurred. However, it is also our understanding that faculty Senate leaders were explicitly asked not to share this account with the broader faculty. There is no precedent for keeping that information private and it compounds the problem of faculty feeling devalued and mistreated.
We urge you in the strongest possible terms to write to all Senate faculty apologizing for the delays and providing a clear plan to address them as soon as possible. You will need to decide whether the current Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs is able to do this work. We have come to believe that the vast majority of cases should be removed from the job portfolio of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs altogether. Thorough review and assessment already takes place at three levels – by Chairs, Deans, and Budget Committee. Where these three agree in their recommendation, no further review by the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs should be required. Those cases should be approved automatically and immediately to clear the backlog, and this should be made the new standard practice to prevent such backlogs in the future.
Short of such a change in the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs’ portfolio, we have no confidence the existing backlog of merit and promotion cases will be cleared in a timely way. Nor do we have confidence the same thing will not be repeated in the current cycle. Indeed, Department Chairs have already been told informally to expect similar backlogs next year and to “calibrate” faculty expectations accordingly. This is not acceptable.
The Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs is a position that is supposed to serve the faculty. Allowing a backlog of cases to grow to unprecedented numbers, refusing to communicate with faculty about the extent or reasons for the backlog, and failing – despite repeated requests from faculty – to provide any viable plan to address the situation in a timely manner is untenable.
Senate faculty at all ranks and across all divisions need and deserve to have their merit and promotions cases processed on time. And faculty deserve clear and prompt communication from Campus leadership if and when delays do occur for unexpected reasons. Faculty should be able to expect these two things as a matter of course; we should not have to write a letter to the Chancellor to make such a basic request for respectful and responsible treatment of faculty by this University. This letter will be sent to all Senate Faculty and posted on our website.
We appreciate your attention to this matter.
Yours,
James Vernon, Mara Loveman, Alastair Iles, Sharad Chari
Co-chairs of the Berkeley Faculty Association, on behalf of the Board