Promotion & Grievances

Promotion is defined as advancement in a rank or job grade of a faculty member from one position to that of a higher job grade. Included are positions of the same grade that offer the faculty members and opportunity to pursue an area of interest. AUHS is committed to building a diverse faculty and staff for employment and promotion to ensure the highest quality of work force and to foster an environment that embraces the broad range of human diversity. The university encourages promotions within the university and departments are encouraged to fill job vacancies by internal promotion of qualified faculty and/or staff members. All administrators, professional and managerial, clerical, technical and service and maintenance staff are encouraged to apply for promotions when they meet the qualifications of the position. The university maintains this policy to develop and provide effective incentives to staff members and to aid departments in obtaining skilled, trained, and experienced administrators, faculty and staff.
To be eligible for a promotion, a faculty member must:

• Be classified as a regular status employee.
• Have satisfactorily completed the probationary period.
• Meet the qualifications of the position.
• Have a satisfactory performance and attendance record.
• Met all the criteria at the rank or step presently held and begin to satisfy those at the rank or step desired.
• When the above criteria are met, the staff member will be eligible to apply for the position.

Faculty members are encouraged to discuss promotions with their department heads.

Faculty desiring to be promoted to the next rank/step must submit their application to their school Dean by June 30thof the year in which they desire to be considered. The application consists of: Curriculum Vitae, a self-evaluation, appropriate documentation of work related to articles, grants, etc. A table for mean scores for teacher evaluation for the past academic years since the last promotion or appointment and before the consideration should also be included; optional would be two peer reviews from a colleague holding the rank desired or above. For SOP the faculty member should also provide a list of three names of individuals at the desired rank or above, who are experts in the same area as that faculty member’s focus area for scholarship/research and are qualified to provide an objective external review of the applicant’s qualifications. All of the individuals listed for external review should be faculty at other institutions than AUHS. The applicant should also receive a letter from their Chair, program supervisor, or Dean recommending promotion and summarizing the criteria for promotion. The letter will accompany the applicant’s promotion package, when it goes out for external review. The letter and evaluation letters from external reviewers will be considered by the applicant’s peers in their home department, SOP Promotion Committee, and Faculty Senate, before the motion for promotion is submitted to the Board of Trustees for final ratification.

Further information on promotion specific for faculty members is detailed in Section IV- FACULTY POLICIES.

Grievances
A grievance is defined as an alleged misapplication of institutional policies or procedures by an employee. Procedures for the resolution of grievances provide a route of appeal through administrative channels. A grievance may be filed for a violation of rights provided by law, or by established University policies including those contained in the Faculty Handbook, or by the faculty member’s contract.

The faculty member should first discuss his/her grievance with their direct supervisor. If for any reason this proves unsatisfactory or inadequate, he/she may take the concern to the Provost and then, if necessary, to HR via-email to Human Resources (hr.info@auhs.edu) If there still seems to be no hope of adjusting the grievance, and the faculty member still feels that he/she has not been given satisfactory answers as to why it cannot be adjusted, he/she is always at liberty to request an appointment with the HR consultant. Appointment can be made thru (hr.info@auhs.edu) Should none of these steps prove successful they can then request a meeting with the University President. Records of all such grievances are maintained in the office of the Provost.