Affirmative Action
Guidelines and Procedures
For Faculty Appointments, Promotions and Terminations

January 2003

I. UNIVERSITY POLICY ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

II. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ADMINISTRATION AT THE UNIVERSITY

1. Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs
2. Associate Provost
3. Executive Assistant to the Associate Provost
4. School Affirmative Action Officers
5. President’s Affirmative Action Council
   

1. New Appointment
2. Promotion
3. Termination of Appointment in the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educators

IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE OF THE COMPLIANCE FORMS

1. Racial/Ethnic Categories
2. Required Documentation
3. Color-coded Forms
4. Specific Instructions for Each of the Three Forms
   1. 1. New Appointment
   2. 2. Promotion
   3. 3. Termination of Appointment in the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educators
      

In each case (new appointment, reappointment, promotion and termination), the selection will be made in accordance with the University's policy on equal opportunity.

In all appointment, reappointment and promotion actions, the best candidate will be selected.

II. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ADMINISTRATION OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

A. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROGRAMS
Ultimate responsibility for the University's affirmative action program rests with the Trustees and the President. However, the Executive Director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs (OAA/EOP) has been designated as the executive responsible for coordinating the University's equal opportunity programs. With the advice of the Executive Director of OAA/EOP, the Associate Provost makes and officially promulgates affirmative action policies for the academic staff. The responsibilities of the Executive Director of OAA/EOP also include orientation for Staff Affirmative Action Compliance Officers and participation with the Executive Assistant to the Associate Provost in orientation for Faculty Affirmative Action Officers. The Executive Director advises the Provost’s office concerning Schools and Academic Divisions, as outlined in the annual Affirmative Action plan update, where mathematical under utilization of women and/or minorities exists, and concerning mechanisms for "special effort searches". Also the Executive Director has principal oversight responsibility for the auditing and reporting systems under the University's affirmative action program.

B. ASSOCIATE PROVOST
Working in close cooperation with the Executive Director of OAA/EOP and the School Affirmative Action Officers, the Associate Provost has primary responsibility for affirmative action/equal opportunity programs for the faculty.

C. EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE ASSOCIATE PROVOST
The Executive Assistant to the Associate Provost has primary responsibility for the day-to-day administration of affirmative action/equal opportunity programs for the faculty. She/he participates with the Associate Provost and the Executive Director of OAA/EOP in orientation for Faculty Affirmative Action Officers. She/he arranges for meetings of the School Affirmative Action Officers at least once a year for discussion of problems and exchange of information.

D. SCHOOL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION OFFICERS
In each of the University's twelve Schools, one or more Affirmative Action Officer is selected by the Dean to monitor equal opportunity compliance in the faculty appointment and promotion process within the School. These officers are tenured or senior clinician-educator faculty member(s) who hold no administrative position. Each fall the Dean will forward the name(s) of the School Affirmative Action Officer(s) to the Associate Provost by September 15. The Affirmative Action Officer(s) may be given released time from some other duties in order to serve in this capacity. The Affirmative Action Officer's responsibilities include:

providing affirmative action/equal opportunity information to Department Chairs, the Chairs of search committees, and individual faculty members;

consulting at a very early stage in the process with search committees and Department Chairs on affirmative action/equal opportunity policies, the placement and wording of advertisements, the wording of letters soliciting candidates and requesting evaluations, special efforts to contact women's and minority organizations;

reviewing all faculty equal opportunity compliance forms for the School;

periodically reviewing availability data with the Deans and Department chairs.

In the faculty appointment and promotion process, substantive decisions on academic merit and staffing needs are the responsibility of the faculty of the appointing Department, the School personnel committee, the Deans and the Provost. If the affirmative action officer perceives a problem with the procedures proposed for a faculty search or in reviewing the equal opportunity compliance form and accompanying documentation, the officer should first attempt to address these issues with the participating faculty members. If, after consulting with the participating faculty members, the affirmative action officer continues to believe that an issue exists, the affirmative action officer shall notify the Department Chair or the Dean immediately. If the problem is not resolved readily by the provision of further documentation or explanations on the part of the Department Chair, the Dean should mediate and assist in the matter and the problem should be brought to the attention of the Associate Provost.

E. President’s AFFIRMATIVE ACTION COUNCIL
The Affirmative Action Council is a presidential committee charged with reviewing the University's equal opportunity and affirmative action policies and recommending changes. It also conveys concerns and issues raised in the University community regarding equal opportunity and affirmative action issues to the President. In addition, it monitors the University's programs and performance in meeting its affirmative action/equal opportunity objectives. In particular it reviews this document every fourth year and makes suggestions for improving the processes here contained. The results of Council's deliberations, conclusions and recommendations are included in its annual report to the President.

III. PROCEDURES

A. NEW APPOINTMENT

1. Formal searches are required for:

• all new appointments in the Standing Faculty and the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator

• all new appointments in the research track of the Associated Faculty, and

• all new appointments as full time clinical faculty in the Associated Faculty of the Dental School.

The University of Pennsylvania is dedicated to an organizational strategy that supports the full realization of equal employment opportunity for all.

Before the new or vacant faculty position may be filled, a search must be made to generate the broadest and strongest possible candidate pool. The search must be conducted in such a manner as to be reasonably likely to bring the vacancy to the attention of qualified minority and female candidates, and to ensure the inclusion of such candidates in the candidate pool. Searches based on "informal contacts" are unacceptable.

• Separate searches must be conducted for positions in different subfields.
  
• Before initiating a search, Chairs should consult with the School Affirmative Action Officer with respect to the conduct of the search generally. When possible, the Affirmative Action Officer should be invited to the first meeting of the search committee to describe affirmative action procedures and to discuss ways of increasing the numbers of qualified women and minorities in the pool. The School Affirmative Action Officer must be informed of openings as they occur and must be given a draft copy of the advertisement announcing the position for review and approval prior to its submission for publication.
  
• The advertisement should specify the subfield if appropriate, desired qualifications, and the faculty rank and track. The advertisement must include the sentence: "The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity affirmative action employer; women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged to apply." The position should be advertised for a reasonable length of time in professional journals, and, where possible, caucus newsletters likely to reach minority and women scholars. Normally advertisements will specify a faculty rank and/or whether the position is to carry tenure; exceptions can be made only if a broader search represents a special effort to increase the number of minority and women applicants. An appointment should never be based upon a search that was made two years or more in the past.
  
• Search committees should, if possible, include among their members women and minority faculty. All members of the search committee should have responsibility to identify and recruit qualified women and minority persons.
  
• An expanded search network should include direct letters to graduate Departments. Disciplinary and professional associations, including committees and caucus groups, should be contacted and their facilities for employee location and referral used. Where possible placement of on-line postings are encouraged to supplement other methods of advertising.
  
• Each School and Department should know the general proportion of women and minority groups within the national pool of candidates for particular academic positions, and should make diligent efforts to bring women and minority group candidates into serious consideration for available positions. To ensure accuracy and consistency, please consult scholarly organizations as well as the following University of Pennsylvania offices for availability data:
  
  1. Office of Institutional Research for the Fall AA report
  2. OAA/EOP for availability figures and goals.
     
• The School’s Affirmative Action Compliance Officer shall have access to dossiers of all women and minority candidates. In cases where a "short list" of candidates is constructed, the Affirmative Action Officer should have access to that list also.
  
• The University will not honor any offers, formal or informal, which are made before Provost's approval. This is only given when proper affirmative action material has been approved at the Provost's level and the appointment has been approved by the Provost’s Staff Conference. Any offers that are made before Provost's approval must be conditioned upon these approvals.
  
• Cases where a formal search was not conducted at the time of the candidate's initial appointment at the University must be handled as new appointments (requiring a search), and not as promotions. For instance, if a person who is currently a research associate or research specialist at the University is to be recommended for an appointment as research assistant professor, a search must be documented. Similarly, if the pool for appointment of assistant professors in clinical Departments is considered to be primarily medical residents in the clinical specialty at Penn, it must be demonstrated that the group of medical residents was chosen using a national search procedure that was not biased against minorities or women.
  
• "Special effort searches" may be required where a Department or School is under-utilizing women or minorities. The mechanism for special effort searches is set up by the appropriate Dean.
  
• Target of Opportunity: In rare and exceptional instances it is possible to make an appointment without a search. This exception is possible only when a person of unquestioned preeminence becomes available and the University can justify the appointment.
  
  A formal written request for a waiver of a search must be submitted by the Department Chair to the Office of the Associate Provost. This request must include detailed documentation supporting the request, and the candidate's current curriculum vitae. Written approval of the waiver of the search will be forwarded to the Department Chair. Copies of both the request and the approval of the waiver of the search must be included in the Affirmative Action Faculty Compliance form.

2. In the selection process, serious consideration must be given to qualified women and members of minority groups. The best candidate from the pool will be selected.

3. Departments are required to retain written records of data concerning candidates, and of all applications and supplementary material received from applicants for all full-time and part-time faculty posts, for two years after a position has been filled. This applies to records of both successful and unsuccessful applicants.

4. Instructions for use of the blue “Faculty Equal Opportunity Compliance Statement” for new appointments can be found under section IV. D. 1 of these guidelines.

B. PROMOTION

1. A formal search is not required for promotions. However, full and fair consideration must be given to all individuals in the same rank and years of service in the Department. Wherever there are several candidates of the same rank and equal time of service, the Department Chair is required to justify the choice of the candidate proposed for promotion.

2. Instructions for use of the goldenrod “Faculty Equal Opportunity Compliance Statement” for promotions can be found under section IV. D. 2 of these guidelines.

C. TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT IN THE STANDING FACULTY OR THE STANDING FACULTY CLINICIAN-EDUCATOR

1. If a Department initiates the termination, it must be shown that full and fair consideration was given to the faculty member's qualifications as compared with all others in the same rank or promoted/reappointed during the last three years.

2. Instructions for use of the salmon “Faculty Equal Opportunity Compliance Statement” for terminations can be found under section IV. D. 3 of these guidelines.

IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE OF THE COMPLIANCE FORM

A. RACIAL/ETHNIC CATEGORIES
The concept of race as used by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (O.F.C.C.P.) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C.) does not denote clear-cut scientific definitions of anthropological origins. Nevertheless, each employee or candidate must be identified as belonging to one, and only one, of six broad racial/ethnic categories which are defined as follows:

1. American Indian or Alaska Native - A person having origins in any original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
   
2. Asian - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
   
3. Black or African American - A person having origins in any of the black racial group of Africa. Terms such as “Haitian” or “Negro” can be used in addition to “Black” or “African American”.
   
4. Hispanic or Latino - A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term “Spanish origin” can be used in addition to “Hispanic or Latino”.
   
5. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
   
6. White, other than Hispanic - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

B. REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION

Please note the documentation which must accompany each form (see Section D below). The School Affirmative Action Officer must review the compliance form with complete documentation, and may request further relevant documentation from the Department Chair or the Dean.

C. COLOR-CODED FORMS

New appointment -- blue
Promotion -- goldenrod
Termination -- salmon

Forms are available on the forms page

For the Provost's copy of the candidate's compliance form, please prepare the original form on the appropriate color-coded paper and submit with the original documents to the Office of the Associate Provost, 118 College Hall/6303.

Some Schools require two originals of the compliance form for each action, one for the School's files, one for the Provost's office. Check with the Dean's office regarding standard procedure in your School.

D. SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR EACH OF THE THREE FORMS

1. New Appointment (See also Section III.A.)

a) The compliance form is blue.

b) The compliance statement, with complete documentation, must precede the candidate's dossier for the following proposals:

• all new appointments in the Standing Faculty and the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator;
• all new appointments in the research track of the Associated Faculty
• all new appointments as full time clinical faculty in the Associated Faculty of the School of Dental Medicine.

c) Both the University's affirmative action policy and federal equal opportunity legislation require that the search process be carefully documented, and that the candidate pool generated be analyzed. The information requested on this form is needed to satisfy these requirements for documentation and analysis and also provide a useful guide to Departments for the conduct of a search.

d) Required documentation (to accompany the compliance form):

i) Original compliance form must precede the proposal for appointment.

ii) regarding the external search:

• copy of advertisement(s) reflecting journal name and date of publication;
• list of Universities, Schools and Departments contacted;
• web address with date of on-line posting and/or copy of web posting;
• sample letter used for contacts. The letter should show that Schools and Departments were encouraged to submit the names of women and minority persons.

iii) regarding the final selection of the proposed candidate:

• curriculum vitae and recommendation letters of the proposed candidate;
• if the proposed candidate was neither minority nor female, the vitae and recommendation letters of the two best minority persons and the two best women considered.

iv) in addition, the School affirmative action officer may request further relevant documentation from the Department Chair or the Dean.

2. Promotion (See also Section III.B)

1. The compliance form is goldenrod.

• The compliance statement, with complete documentation, must precede the candidate's dossier for the following proposals:
  
  • the promotion of full-time faculty members in the Standing Faculty, in the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator, and in the research track of the Associated Faculty.

1. Required documentation (to accompany the compliance form):
   
   1. original compliance form must precede the proposal for promotion;
   2. the candidate's updated curriculum vitae;
   3. in addition, the School affirmative action officer may request further relevant documentation from the Department Chair or the Dean.

3. Termination of Appointment in the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educators (See also Section III.C)

1. The compliance form is salmon color.
   
2. The compliance statement, with complete documentation, must be submitted when:
   1. the faculty member is not being reappointed or promoted; or
   2. the faculty member is moving into another track outside the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator;
   3. the faculty member voluntarily resigns
      
3. Whenever possible, this compliance statement should be approved by the Dean and the Provost before a faculty member is notified officially that his or her appointment in the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator is to be terminated. In any event, this statement must be approved by the Dean and Provost before the Provost will authorize a search for a faculty member to replace the person who is leaving.
   
4. Required documentation (to accompany the compliance form):
   1. the curriculum vitae of the faculty member who is leaving the University of the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator;
      ii) if the faculty member is not being reappointed or promoted, a copy of the notification letter, signed and dated by the faculty member (must be included;
   2. if the faculty member is resigning from the University or from the Standing Faculty or the Standing Faculty Clinician-Educator, a copy of the letter of resignation must be included;
   3. in addition, the School affirmative action officer may request further relevant documentation from the Department Chair or the Dean.