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Staff Council Procedures
It is the responsibility of the Staff Council to help the Director of Research and the President and Director in making appointment and promotion decisions or recommendations to the Executive Committee to the ranks of Senior Departmental Assistant and to the Technical and Scientific Staffs. The Staff Council's primary task is to ensure objectivity, rigor, and equity of the appointments and promotions process, both overall and on a case-by-case basis.

In the event that a Department Chair is unable to attend a Staff Council meeting, the designated Acting Chair will attend. However, the Department Chair should present the file for appointment/promotion.

All recommendations of Staff Council are based on reviews of confidential files. (See Appendix 1a and Appendix 1b for charts of the file requirements for promotion and appointment, respectively.) All Staff Council discussions and recommendations, and the identities of external Ad Hoc Committee members for tenure and senior technical staff promotions/appointments, are held Institution-In-Confidence.

All files for promotion on the Technical Staff are first reviewed by the Technical Staff Evaluation Council (TSEC). Their recommendation becomes part of the confidential file. Appointments are reviewed by the Chair of TSEC.

For promotion to the ranks of Senior Departmental Assistant I and II, Research Associate I, II and III, Information Systems Associate I, II and III, Engineer I and II and Research Engineer (see Appendix 2 for details of the process).

1. The department sends the complete file, along with minutes of TSEC and the final memo from the Department Chair/Center Director or Manager, to Human Resources. The file should include an Authorization for Personnel Action form with the recommended title and salary. Human Resources will review the salary recommendation and add relevant comments to aid in the decision process. Human Resources signs off on the file to show that it has been reviewed for compensation and EEO purposes. The file will then be sent to the Director of Research for review, or the appropriate Vice President.

2. The Director of Research / Vice President will review the file. At the discretion of the Director of Research / Vice President, the file may be circulated to the Department Chairs if further review and comment is considered necessary.

   Note: If the Director of Research / Vice President requests further review and comments from the Department Chairs, the Department Chairs will have 5 working days in which they must email their comments to the Director of Research.

3. The Director of Research / Vice President makes a decision regarding the promotion and salary recommendation. If the promotion or recommended salary is not approved, the Director of Research / Vice President will contact the Chair/Center Director or Manager directly. If the promotion and recommended salary are approved, the Director of Research / Vice President will sign off on the file and return it to Human Resources. Human Resources will notify the department, prepare the necessary letter, and process the promotion. The effective date of the promotion and salary increase will be the day on which the Director of Research / Vice President makes the decision to promote.

Appointments to these ranks are not otherwise reviewed by Staff Council.

For all other promotions and appointments to the Senior Technical and Scientific Staff, files (See Appendix 3 for details) are forwarded to Staff Council members for review a minimum of three working days prior to the scheduled meeting. All meetings of the Council are chaired by the Director of Research and follow a set format:

• The file is presented to Staff Council by the Department Chair or Center Director, or in the case of promotion to Associate Scientist without Tenure, by the Chair of the Ad Hoc Review Committee. In the cases of other promotions, a tenured staff member may be invited to join Staff Council deliberations as a non-voting member to clarify certain scientific or technical points.
   
• Each Department Chair is then asked for comments on the case. The case presenter or the candidate's Chair responds to points of information and clarification.
   
• The Vice President for Academic Programs describes the candidate's contributions to education programs.
   
• The EEO Officer comments on equity issues.
   
• The Director of Research and the Institution President and Director offer comments.
   
• A general discussion proceeds with questions and comments from all members, including the President and Director.
   
• The Director of Research then calls for a vote: Yes, No, or Abstention. All abstentions must be explained in writing and added to the file within two days. The vote of the Council is a recommendation to the President and Director.

• written explanations of abstentions,
• a memo from the EEO Officer regarding affirmative action compliance,
• the minutes of an External Ad Hoc Review Committee meeting,
• a memorandum from the Chair addressing the Department's response to new information raised during the External Ad Hoc review meeting,
• the President and Director's decision or recommendation to the Executive Committee, and
• the decision of the Executive Committee.

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