Compliance Status

Louisiana State University and A&M College is in compliance with this principle.

Narrative

Louisiana State University and A&M College (LSU) publishes policies describing the conditions of appointment, employment, and evaluation. These conditions are periodically assessed and widely disseminated such that LSU personnel have suitable qualifications to support the mission of the university. The Bylaws and Regulations of the LSU Board of Supervisors outline the overarching policies regarding the appointment and employment of faculty and staff [1].  LSU appoints and employs faculty and staff in accordance with the well-defined policies specified below.  The Office of Human Resource Management provides resources for prospective and current faculty and staff and assures compliance with all employment procedures [2].  A wide array of LSU System Permanent Memoranda and LSU Policy Statements include information relating to the following: criteria for employment, equal employment opportunity compliance, compensation, benefits, leave, promotion, tenure, and termination/dismissals. The policies and procedures used at LSU are commensurate with the mission of the institution “to employ faculty who are excellent teacher-scholars, nationally competitive in research and creative activities, and who contribute to a world-class knowledge base that is transferable to educational, professional, cultural, and economic enterprises” [3].

Policies Directly Related to Appointment and Employment of Faculty and Staff

LSU System Permanent Memoranda and LSU Policy Statements define and describe many aspects of the conditions of employment for an LSU employee. Current or prospective faculty and staff can access campus policy statements directly through the LSU Website [4]. System-wide policies and Permanent Memoranda (PMs) may be found on the LSU System Website [5]. The relevant documents include the following:

LSU System Permanent Memoranda

• PM-3 Compensations Limitations [6]
• PM-5 LSU System Holiday Schedules [7]
• PM-11 Outside Employment of University Employees [8]
• PM-12 Educational Privileges, Educational Leave, and Sabbatical Leave [9]
• PM-20 Leave Policies for Academic and Unclassified Employees and Classified Personnel [10]
• PM-23 Ranks, Provisions, and Governing Appointments & Promotions of the Academic Staff [11]
• PM-26 System Policy on International Employees and Visitors [12]
• PM-35 Implementation Procedure for Review of Faculty Ranks [13]
• PM-55 Equal Opportunity Policy [14]
• PM-69 Delegation of Authority to Execute Personnel Actions [15]

LSU Policy Statements

• PS-1 Equal Opportunity Policy [16]
• PS-7 Academic Honorifics [17]
• PS-8 Employee Discipline Procedures [18]
• PS-12 Leave Guidelines (Includes Annual, Sick, Compensatory, FMLA, Leave Without Pay, and Crisis Leave) [19]
• PS-20 Title Salary Administration [20]
• PS-25 Nepotism [21]
• PS-26 Policy for Persons with Disabilities [22]
• PS-28 Employment and Payment of Contingent Employees [23]
• PS-35 Performance Evaluations (Professional) [24]
• PS-35 Performance Planning Worksheet for Professional Employees [25]
• PS-36-NT Initial Appointments, Reappointments, Annual Reviews, and Promotions for Faculty Other Than Tenure-Track and Tenured [26]
• PS-36-T Tenure-Track and Tenured Faculty: Appointments, Reappointments, Promotions, Tenure, Annual Reviews, and Enhancement of Job Performance.  This also includes information on “Stopping the Tenure Clock.” [27]
• PS-36-T and PS-36-NT C.V. and Supporting Documentation [28]
• PS-39 Performance Evaluations (Classified) [29]
• PS-40 Employee Records Confidentiality [30]
• PS-43 Additional Compensation Limits [31]
• PS-61 Overtime [32]
• PS-79 Flexible Work Hours and Staffing [33]
• PS-80 Grievance Procedures [34]
• PS-81 English Language Teaching Proficiency [35]
• PS-104 Dismissal for Cause for Faculty [36]
• PS-105 Return to Work Policy for Employees on Workers’ Compensation [37]
• PS-109 Annual Departmental Reviews for Faculty [38]

Development of Policy Statements

The development of policy statements at LSU, including those related to employment, requires extensive collaboration among many campus stakeholders. In essence, this process is defined as the “Policy Statement Development, Approval, Revision, and Rescindment Protocol” [39]. When there is a proposed new policy statement, the protocol, as practiced, starts with the “Initiation of Proposed Policy Statements.” This process is initiated in the respective operating unit via appropriate administrative channels and then routed to the appropriate vice chancellor, who provides for review within the assigned operating unit. If the proposed policy statement is deemed by the highest unit administrator to have merit, the policy is routed to the Office of Academic Affairs and to the additional units to which the policy pertains or in which additional review may be required.

Policy statement revisions are submitted by the corresponding operating unit and routed through administrative channels to the appropriate vice chancellor, who will provide for review by the appropriate units. Upon completion of the review, the proposed policy statement revision is routed to the Office of Academic Affairs.

Whether the proposed policy is new or a revision, the Office of Academic Affairs will review, comment, and provide for action within a reasonably deemed timeframe that is congruent with campus policy on dissemination and implementation. Legal counsel is employed when the proposed new policy statement or revision is deemed to require jurisprudential scrutiny. Finally, where applicable, dependent upon legal counsel review, the proposed new policy or policy statement revision is forwarded to the executive vice chancellor & provost.

The executive vice chancellor & provost will then comment and advise accordingly. Upon his or her analysis, the proposed new policy or revised policy statement will be forwarded to the LSU System president & chancellor for final review and action.

Upon receipt and subsequent approval of the new or newly revised policy statement, the president & chancellor routes the proposal back to the Office of Academic Affairs, where it is disseminated and published under the auspices of that office.

Further, upon completion of the above delineated process, new or newly revised policies are reviewed by each individual operating unit at least once during a period not to exceed five years. Underscoring this requirement, the Office of Academic Affairs will continue to ensure compliance according to the policy statement’s rubric and guidelines. It is the responsibility of the monitoring units to certify to the Office of Academic Affairs that pertinent policy statements are current and remain applicable to campus operating and procedural guidelines.

Finally, in the event that a particular policy statement is found to be no longer feasible or applicable to campus practice, the monitoring unit must provide justification for rescindment and forward that recommendation to the appropriate vice chancellor. If the reviewing vice chancellor concurs with the rescindment, then the process through which the policy is annulled satisfies the review and administrative scrutiny that is required for creating a new, or revising an existing, policy.

Dissemination of Policies to Faculty and Staff

In addition to the online availability of the relevant LSU System permanent memoranda [4] and LSU policy statements [5], valuable relevant information is also highlighted in the LSU Faculty Handbook [40] and in the LSU Staff Handbook [41].

New Employee Orientation

Newly appointed faculty and staff attend a one-day orientation in which important onboarding information is provided, including benefits options, retirement plan options, policies and procedures, parking, and a campus tour [42]. 

New Faculty Orientation

New faculty members are expected to attend the New Faculty Orientation administered by the Office of Academic Affairs; here they have the opportunity quickly to familiarize themselves with policies and resources that will help them in their classrooms and with research activities.  Presentations focus on university policies and procedures, the tenure process, the LSU campus community, and faculty resources for teaching and learning [43].

Staff and Faculty Reviews

Staff and faculty are periodically reviewed in a manner that puts the employment policies into operation.

Civil Service Staff Review

LSU complies with the Louisiana State Civil Service rules to evaluate the performance of employees classified under the Louisiana State Civil Service system [44].  The annual review is intended to assess the congruency of performance with the department and university’s overall missions and to develop employees into high-performing individuals, as noted by the attached example [45].   

Unclassified Staff Reviews

Administrative, professional, and other academic staff also undergo a formal performance review each year.  The review represents a continuous process of planning, communication, evaluation, development, and recognition and reward between the employee and the supervisor within the department. The annual evaluation provides an opportunity to review formally each employee as part of the performance management system. The evaluation represents an agreement between the employee and supervisor of the critical functions which must be performed and a discussion of how well the employee is meeting expectations [46].

Faculty Reviews

Performance reviews are conducted for each faculty member at the university, as required by policy statements 36-T for tenure-track and tenured faculty [27] and 36-NT for faculty other than tenure track [26], and Permanent Memorandum 23 [11]. The following information describes the general framework of faculty reviews. More details and examples of faculty reviews are addressed in the compliance certificate for Comprehensive Standard 3.7.2.

Faculty evaluations take several forms:

Annual Faculty Reviews

Department Chairs/School Directors are responsible for conducting systematic annual reviews of the faculty.  The procedure and criteria vary by departmental or college policies; however, these policies cannot conflict with LSU policies.  Fundamental to this process is an evaluation of job performance, whereby the chair highlights areas in need of improvement and offers appropriate advice and assistance.  Examples of factors and evidence for judging scholarship, teaching, and service are provided in university policy statements PS 36-T [1] and PS 36-NT [2].  The evaluation is provided to the faculty member in writing and, where required or requested, discussed with the faculty member, as in the attached example [47].

Reappointment Reviews

Tenure-track faculty members whose contracts end prior to the mandatory tenure year undergo a review for reappointment.  For new incoming assistant professors, this is typically their third year review; for other ranks, the time differs.  Department Chairs/School Directors, under the oversight of their respective deans, are responsible for assessing the faculty member’s performance with input from faculty above the rank of the member undergoing the review. This formative evaluation process primarily is designed to inform assistant professors of the extent to which they have made reasonable progress toward meeting the criteria for tenure. Faculty members are notified of the decision in person by the dean or chair as well as in writing [27]. If the decision is reached not to reappoint a faculty member, the member must be notified according to the following timeline:

1. Not later than March 1 of the first academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of the year, or, if an initial one-year appointment terminates during an academic year, at least three months in advance of its termination;
2. Not later than December 15 of the second academic year of service, if the appointment expires at the end of that year, or if an initial two-year appointment terminates during the academic year, at least six months in advance of its termination;
3. At least 12 months before the expiration of an appointment after two or more years of campus service.

Promotion Reviews

Comprehensive reviews are conducted in order to promote a faculty member from assistant professor to associate professor and from associate professor to professor.  The tenure review process often coincides with evaluation to promote from assistant professor to associate professor.  To help assure rigorous and thorough reviews, advisory committees, established in advance and composed of faculty above the rank of the faculty member seeking promotion, will be employed by the provost and by the deans of colleges when the consideration involves recommendations for (1) promotion or tenure or (2) tenure with an initial appointment.  In each departmentalized college, an advisory committee advises the dean regarding an individual faculty member [27].

Post-tenure Reviews

All faculty members, regardless of rank, are evaluated annually except when the faculty member is being reviewed for reappointment, promotion, or tenure; has been given notice of non-reappointment or termination; or suffers from an illness or condition which prohibits the normal evaluation process from occurring. Permanent Memorandum 35 [13] states that if a faculty member has had two consecutive unsatisfactory regular reviews or three unsatisfactory reviews in a five-year period, tenured faculty shall be reviewed by tenured faculty in the department.  This review could result in a remediation plan for the faculty member or lead to dismissal with cause [36].

Finding of Unsatisfactory Job Performance

Board of Supervisors PM 35 requires a process through which the campus provides assistance to a tenured faculty member who has had two consecutive or three reviews in a five-year period that have been deemed unsatisfactory [13]. LSU PS 109 states that if a faculty member receives indication of unsatisfactory job performances, as outlined in PM-35 and described above, a Peer Review Committee is established that, if unsatisfactory job performance is confirmed, advises and assists the faculty member on developing and carrying out a plan for improvement [38].

Additional information related to staff and faculty evaluations can be found in the compliance certificates for Comprehensive Standards 3.2.10 and 3.7.2.