RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TASK FORCE ON FACULTY LIFE  (10/8/03)

 

J. Michael Bishop, M.D.

Chancellor

 

The Task Force on Faculty Life made ten principal recommendations.  This document outlines how the campus will proceed to consider and implement these.  It also comments on several other issues that have been vexing the UCSF faculty and were apparent in the results of the original survey.

 

Recommendation 1: Leadership.  The Chancellor and Deans should provide leadership in addressing the concerns identified by the survey.  They should be advised by a Council on Faculty Life that would recommend pertinent policies, oversee the implementation of these, monitor progress and maintain visibility of the initiative. 

 

Initial Action:

 

a.) I have discussed the entire report from the Task Force with the Deans and Vice Chancellors, and obtained their wholehearted endorsement of both its spirit and substance. 

b.) I have appointed a Council on Faculty Life (hereafter, the Council) that will be chaired by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and will report directly to the Chancellor (membership of the Council can be found at http://chancellor.ucsf.edu/committees/standing/fac_council/contents.htm ).  The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs will be responsible for implementation of all approved initiatives, and will report on progress to me and the Council.

 

Recommendation 2: Flexibility in Careers at UCSF.  UCSF should optimize the use of mechanisms provided by the University of California that allow faculty to adjust their work and academic advancement to the needs of their personal lives, without fear of penalty.

 

Initial Action:

 

a.) I have instructed the Deans to ensure that departmental chairs and other leadership within the schools fully honor the available mechanisms for flexibility in career planning by faculty.  These mechanisms should be clearly articulated and readily available to all faculty, without fear of penalty.  I will ask the Council to advise me on how to achieve such transparency. 

b.) I have authorized funding from campus resources to support childbearing leave for faculty, effective October 1, 2003.  The intention is to provide at least some relief to the hardship experienced by departments when faculty utilize such leave and, thus, to reassure faculty that utilizing the leave will not be viewed in a pejorative manner.  By UC policy, all salaried women faculty are entitled to leave and active service-modified duties for childbearing.  Leave is authorized for 6 weeks with pay, and an additional 6 weeks without pay. The funds will be provided to departments for the first six weeks that the faculty member is on leave.  The funding will be available for faculty in all five series and will be based on Scale 0, the fiscal-year base salary (X).  Further details are available from the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

c.) I ask that leadership within the schools honor without prejudice the UC policy of granting "time off the clock" for childbearing, adoption, childrearing, and illness.  At UCSF, this policy applies to all members of the Academic Senate.

d.) I will ask the Council to review the relevant UC policies and recommend any additions that would be helpful.

 

Recommendation 3: Transparency of Review Processes.  Written materials describing the departmental merit appraisal process and preparatory materials should be readily available (e.g., online) and match the policies and procedures employed by the department.  The University of California “Career Review Procedure” should be available to faculty, especially those who are considering a change in series.          

 

Initial Action: I will ask the Council to advise me on these recommendations.

 

Recommendation 4: Departmental Mentoring. Departments should provide detailed and sustained mentoring of faculty at all crucial stages of their careers. 

 

Initial Action: As a first step, I endorse and will support the current initiative on mentoring by the UCSF Academic Senate.  I will ask that the Council work with the Senate in the development of this program.  The Senate has been working for more than a year to identify “best practices for developing mentoring programs.”  They have developed a menu of mentoring plans so that departments can choose from a variety of options that best fit their needs.  The menu includes options for one-on-one mentoring as well as departmental mentoring programs, with campus-wide programs available to all faculty.  The full text of the Task Force report will be placed on the Academic Senate website after a review by Chairs, and approval of the Deans.  Chairs, or their designates, will be requested to provide an annual assessment.

 

Recommendation 5: Institutional Welcoming.  The report from the Task Force makes a number of specific recommendations that might better inform newly arrived faculty about campus life and policies.

 

Initial Action: The campus will support these recommendations, in consultation with the Council.

 

Recommendation 6: Searches for Faculty and Leadership. Clear guidance regarding the conduct of searches and the provision of informational resources for them should be provided.  The Search Ambassadors Program proposed by the Academic Senate’s Equal Opportunity Committee should be implemented to assist search committees in using best practices and in the relocation of recruits to the Bay Area.  Toolkits should be developed to establish best practices and to make expertise and resources for searches more available.

 

Initial Action: The campus will support these recommendations, in consultation with the Council.  In particular, I endorse and will support the new Ambassador program of the Academic Senate, which will provide suitable services to all departments, irrespective of their resources.  The program is designed to achieve diverse pools of outstanding candidates.  I will ask the Council to monitor the progress of this program and make further recommendations, as necessary. I will also ask the Council to explore ways in which prospective new faculty can be properly informed about the nature of the academic appointment that has been offered to them

 

Recommendation 7: Opportunities for Leadership.  UCSF should identify equitable means by which faculty who are interested in assuming positions of leadership can be encouraged and trained to do so.

 

Initial Action: I agree and will look to the Council for help in designing and implementing suitable initiatives.

 

Recommendation 8: Socially Welcoming New Faculty.  Programs should be developed to make new faculty feel welcome and to introduce new and existing faculty to each other.

 

Initial Action: I agree that there is a need for such measures.  I will ask the Council to recommend what form they might take and what venues would be most appropriate.  As necessary, I will ask the Deans and, through them, the Departmental Chairs to sponsor suitable activities.

 

Recommendation 9: Work/Life Balance.  UCSF should work to foster a balance between professional and personal life by eliminating an institutional culture that requires the unlimited availability of faculty to work.

 

Initial Action:   I acknowledge that there are practices at UCSF that intrude unnecessarily on the private lives of our faculty.  I will ask the Council to identify these practices and recommend remedies.

 

Recommendation 10: Evaluating Collaborative Research.  UCSF should work to identify new ways to assess merit for investigators whose work is highly collaborative and assign value to the unique contributions made to group efforts; make the merit appraisal process more open to valuing clinical and qualitative research; and find ways to assess clinician scientists that takes into consideration both research and clinical productivity, and does not expect active clinicians to have equal research productivity to faculty with no clinical responsibilities.

 

Initial Action: I will ask the Council to collaborate with the Academic Senate in evaluating this issue and devising remedies for whatever difficulties they identify.

 

Additional Issues:

 

1.) Child Care.  The limited availability of childcare at UCSF has been prominent among the complaints of both faculty and staff over the past decade.  The campus has now taken substantial steps to address this problem.  In particular, the facility for childcare at Laurel Heights has been expanded, and new facilities are being constructed at both Parnassus Heights and Mission Bay.  As a result, the capacity for childcare at UCSF will be tripled by the academic year 2005/2006.  The campus will continue to monitor the need for childcare and take further steps as necessary.

 

2.) Sexual Harassment.  The survey of faculty suggested that sexual harassment continues to plague the UCSF community, and that the institution has not responded effectively.  The campus leadership acknowledges the seriousness of this matter and will ask the Council to explore new remedies.  It is only fair to note that the record has improved appreciably since establishment of the Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention and Resolution in 1993.  But no one in the campus leadership is complacent about this issue.  Sexual harassment in any form cannot be tolerated.

 

3.) Salary equity.  Inequities between the salaries of men and women in academia have been well and widely documented.   The data for UCSF are incomplete and not current.  I have asked all the schools to perform exhaustive audits on an annual basis, for review by the Council.  If inequities are uncovered, I will ask that they be suitably rectified.