MEMORANDUM

TO:        Academic Assembly Steering Committee

FROM:   Academic Personnel Policy Committee
              Julia Stiles, Chair

DATE:   June 28, 2001

The Academic Assembly Standing Committee on Academic Personnel Policy (APPC) presents its annual report for 2000/2001.

1. Membership
   Second year members are Kathy Chiang, Don Schnedeker and Julia Stiles (Chair). First year members are Constance Finlay (appointed February 2001), Jean Poland and Tom Weissinger (resigned January 2001). Ex Officio member is Susan Markowitz. Steering Committee liaison is Marty Kurth. The committee met monthly throughout the academic year.

2. Internal Grants Program
   In response to an assignment from the Steering Committee, APPC discussed and made recommendations for a new CUL internal grants program that Sarah Thomas wished to fund. The committee drafted recommendations about the elements of an internal grants program, the structure and responsibilities of an Internal Grants Committee and a charge for this committee. The Internal Grants Program was successfully established and made its first awards in the spring of 2001.

3. Cornell University Interim Policy on Leaves for Professors and Academic Staff
   APPC reviewed the draft university policy on leaves and conveyed comments and questions to the writers of the policy on behalf of CUL. APPC studied the policy to learn how it will apply to CUL academic staff. The Interim Policy provides for Cornell Academic Parental Leave (CAPL) and states that the guidelines for the exact nature of relief under CAPL for librarians and archivists will be established by the University Librarian. APPC researched how the new policy would be implemented in other campus units and made recommendations to Sarah Thomas for guidelines for our implementation of CAPL. LMT will review our CAPL recommendations in July.

4. CUL Procedure #44
   The new university policy on leaves for academic staff supersedes much of our CUL Procedure #44 "Leaves". APPC reviewed and revised CUL Procedure #44. The revised procedure is devoted to CUL's research/professional development leaves. It will be submitted to LMT for their review in July or August.

5. Nominations
   APPC reviewed nominations for search committees for the Coordinator of Distributed Learning, for the Curator of the Wason Collection and for the Africana Studies Librarian.

   APPC made recommendations to Sarah Thomas for new members of the 2001/02 Review Board for Promotion to Librarian. There are no candidates for promotion to Associate Librarian for the coming year. Continuing members of the Review Board for Promotion to Associate Librarian will be asked to postpone the second year of their service for one year.

6. Promotion Orientation
   APPC and the CUL Office of Human Resources held its annual Promotion Orientation. A panel discussed promotion procedures and the meaning and examples of the promotion criteria.

7. Carryover Business
   
   1. APPC will request time at the Sept. 6 Academic Assembly business meeting to highlight the new CUL Policy on Leaves for Professors and Academic Staff. The resulting new policy on Cornell Academic Parental Leave and a revised Procedure #44 on Research/Professional Development Leaves will be presented if either or both is approved by that date. Information about these documents will be presented if they are still pending.

   2. A clearer and more complete presentation of Academic Personnel Polices on Staff Web is desirable. A review of the documents presented now, addition of new documents and recommendations for a revised presentation should be addressed by next year's committee.

   3. Steering Committee has asked APPC to discuss two issues with respect to the status of Library Fellows. One issue is the need for guidelines for Fellows' membership in the Academic Assembly and on its standing committees. A second issue is the status of a term as a Library Fellow vis-a-vis the promotion review process should a Library Fellow be appointed to a permanent Librarian/Archivist position.

   4. Librarians who are initially appointed at the ranks of Associate Librarian or Librarian are often appointed for five years. Susan recommends that APPC discuss the pros and cons of adding language to CUL Procedure #13 outlining an option for the initial appointment to be for one or two years instead of the customary five.

   5. Susan recommends that APPC review and revise CUL Procedure #28 "Evaluation Procedures for Academic Staff" in the coming year.

jwg 8/24/01
rev. jdl 8/28/01