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Academic Year Conversion Guidelines Through 2004-05

Annual to Academic Year Conversions

Guidelines for the

Implementation of University Policy

These guidelines are applicable to tenure system faculty, specialists in the continuing appointment system, and librarians in the continuous appointment system; they are effective solely for conversions to be implemented through the 2004-05 academic year.

Conversion to an academic year appointment is effective on August 16.

Applicable Policy

• Since the appointment policies and procedures employed prior to January 1, 1982 did not clearly define the continuing basic employment commitment, faculty who were appointed in the tenure system on an annual (AN) 12 month basis prior to January 1, 1982 are not converted to academic year (AY) appointments unless they consent to the change. 

• For faculty appointed in the tenure system on an AN appointment on or after January 1, 1982, the following policy applies:

All appointments, including those on an annual year (AN) basis, in the tenure system, the academic specialist continuing appointment system, and the librarian continuous appointment system, at Michigan State University involve the University making a continuing basic employment commitment to academic year (AY) appointments only. This policy is to ensure that any individual employment commitment to an annual appointment (AN) basis is justified by current unit missions, programmatic needs, and the related responsibilities of individual faculty and academic staff members. If unit missions and programmatic needs change, the annual appointment basis may no longer be appropriate and, consequently, the individual would then change to academic year basis, which is the basic employment commitment for the academic personnel systems designated above[1].

• The AY appointment generally assumes that University assignments are limited to a duty period consisting of the regular academic year (Fall and Spring semesters from August 16^th to May 15^th).  In cases where programmatic needs require the presence of an AY faculty member during the summer months, the University permits units to negotiate exchanging the non duty period to the Fall or Spring semester with AY appointed faculty.[2] 

• A full-time AN appointment requires that the appointee be assigned full-time duties in support of unit programs throughout the calendar year.

General Conversion Guidelines: Periodic Programmatic Review of AN/AY Assignments

• All AN and AY tenure system faculty assignments should be reviewed periodically in relation to unit missions and programmatic requirements to determine whether programmatic needs are consistent with the appointment commitment (AN or AY).  The review process must focus on the “intensity of the assignment over time”, namely, whether the assignment reasonably warrants full- time effort throughout the calendar year and whether that assignment is expected to continue in future years. 

• Tenure system faculty appointed on an AN basis who have assignments which require full-time effort throughout the calendar year and whose assignments are expected to continue to require such effort in the future should continue to receive AN appointments.

• Tenure system faculty appointed on an AN basis whose programmatic assignments no longer meet the standard for AN appointments must be converted to AY appointments or be assigned additional duties.

Conversion Guidelines for Tenure System Faculty Appointed on an AN Basis after January 1, 1982

• Tenure system faculty may be converted to AY if their specific responsibilities no longer justify an AN appointment in light of current unit missions and programmatic needs. 

• In implementing conversions for faculty, the basic salary conversion formula of AY salary =.818 (AN salary) is to be employed.  In addition, the Provost has agreed to increment the conversion factor to compensate for the loss of the University contribution to the retirement plan in an amount equivalent to 10% of the lost salary[3].  With this increment, the total base conversion formula for faculty would be AY salary=.836(AN salary).

• In addition, faculty will be eligible for regular annual merit salary adjustments, with the first raise based on the faculty member’s old AN salary rate.

• Faculty who are converted to AY will be eligible immediately for partial or full summer compensation if warranted by the assignment. 

• Faculty will also be eligible immediately for partial or full summer compensation on grants and contracts, consistent with the policies of the University and the granting and contracting agency.

Conversion Guidelines for Tenure System Faculty Appointed on an AN Basis prior to January 1, 1982

• Tenure system faculty in this category must consent to a conversion to an AY appointment.

• The basic guidelines (including conversion formulas, eligibility for raises, summer appointments and transitional support) used for faculty appointed on an AN basis subsequent to January 1, 1982 will be utilized.

• The inclusion of additional incentives to the basic guidelines to encourage conversions consistent with programmatic requirements will be considered on a college by college basis, but must be approved by the Provost prior to implementation.

• Tenure system faculty with AN appointments whose assignments no longer merit AN appointments in light of current unit mission and programmatic needs but who are unwilling to convert to AY appointments must be assigned additional responsibilities consistent with an AN appointment.

Addressing Compensation Inequities in AN/AY Conversions

• In addition to changes in programmatic requirements, conversions may be employed, on an individual basis, and with appropriate justification, to address market-based compensation inequities. 

• Specific guidelines and conversion formula limitations are discussed in the addendum to this document.

WSA: 5/6/03

Approved 5/27/03

Addendum

Guidelines for Addressing Market Based Compensation Inequities

In

Annual to Academic Year Conversions  

In addition to responding to changes in programmatic requirements, conversions from annual (AN) to academic year (AY) may be employed, on an individual basis and with appropriate justification, to address market-based compensation inequities.  As noted in the implementation for conversion to AY, a salary conversion formula of  .836(AN Salary) is to be employed in determining AY compensation.  In individual cases, where it is clearly demonstrated that the resulting AY compensation would be significantly below the market, the conversion formula may be increased to an amount not to exceed .88(AN salary). 

It is emphasized that the determination of compensation inequities and corrective actions must be done on an individual basis as follows:

Determining Individual Eligibility:

To be considered eligible for an additional market conversion:

• The faculty member must have received merit salary adjustments during each of the previous three years that were above respective unit averages (overall and or by rank).

• The faculty member will, under the standard conversion (of .836) have a proposed AY salary that is below average in comparison to AY equivalent compensation (corrected for cost of living differentials) received by faculty in like disciplines/specialties/units who are employed by comparable reference institutions (e.g. Big Ten, CIC Universities etc.).

Documentation supporting each of the above items must be submitted with each request for a market conversion factor.

Determining Individual Market Conversion Increments

As noted above, the base AN to AY salary conversion formula approved for conversions implemented in 2003-05 is: AY salary=.836(AN salary).  In addition an increment to the base conversion factor, not to exceed .044 has been approved to compensate for justified market inequities.  The specific amount of inequity increment to be proposed must be determined on an individual basis taking into account the following:

·       The relationship of the proposed individual AY salary resulting from the increment to other salaries in the unit noting that the salary structure (i.e., salary distributions resulting from past merit decisions) must be maintained.

·       The relationship of the incremented AY salary to reference groups employed in the original eligibility determination.

It is assumed that these individual considerations will result in a differential distribution of the inequity conversion factors within and across units.  

Approval

Recommendations for individual inequity factors in AN/AY conversions must be requested and justified at the unit level, endorsed by the Dean and approved by the Provost. 

4/23/03 WSA

Approved 5/29/03