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Pre-review requirement for senior ranks

For prospective hires at the rank of Professor (Professor of Instruction, Professor of Practice, Clinical Professor, Adjunct Professor, and Distinguished Senior Lecturer), pre-approval is required from EVPP, following the process described below. For more on titles and ranks see COE: Titles and Ranks - Professional Track Faculty.

Process

1. The department chair discusses the case with the Senior Associate Dean.

2. Department AM submits form "Pre-Review for Tenure" at Faculty Affairs/APS ServiceNow: Complete Forms.

   1. Upload the following documentation to the request:

      1. Current CV for the candidate

      2. Brief description of the recruitment/identification/finalist process and rationale for selecting this finalist above others

      3. EEO report from Interfolio 

   2. In the section "Required Approval Routing," add the following:

      1. Dean's Staff: Karla A Steffen (steffek). This field is required in COE.

      2. Dean or Dean Designate: Beth Maloch (malochb)

3. If the request is approved by both the Senior Associate Dean and EVPP, print the approval notification email to PDF, and include in the supplementary documentation of the PAR packet.

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When is a PAR needed?

PARs must be processed for hires of new faculty, and former faculty whose employment has been terminated. Faculty are not hired via Workday. Once the PAR is final-approved, EVPP loads the appointment into Workday via the PAR. 

A PAR is needed in the following situations:

• New faculty member who has never taught at UT Austin.

• Rehire of former faculty member whose position was terminated.

• Faculty member whose position has been inactive for longer than three years.

• Current UT Austin faculty or staff member, who will be instructor of record or hold another faculty role in a new, different unit.
  

A PAR is not required in these situations:

• Professional-track faculty member who holds an inactive faculty position that has been inactive for fewer than three years, and is in the correct unit. Position can be reactivated in Workday.

• Courtesy (0%) positions. Instead, use the Add Academic Appointment business process in Workday.

• Retired faculty member returning to teach. See COE: Hiring Retirees for other options.

Contact COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu with any questions.

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Professional-track PARs

See also:

• EVPP: Prior Approval Request (PAR)

• COE: PAR - T/TT Electronic Document Processing Guide: section-by-section instructions for processing a PAR in DEFINE

Senior ranks

For prospective hires at the rank of Professor (Professor of Instruction, Professor of Practice, Clinical Professor, Adjunct Professor, and Distinguished Senior Lecturer), pre-approval is required from EVPP. This approval must be granted before the PAR can be approved. See Pre-review requirement for senior ranks on this page.

Start dates

Professional Track positions should generally have a start date of either August 16 or January 1 during the long session; and May 16 or July 1 for summer assignments. In some circumstances, however, an earlier start date may be requested. The reason for the early start date should be explained in Section 8 of the PAR.

If a summer start date prior to 8/16 is requested, then the PAR should be dated for the fiscal year prior to the fall. For example, if a fall instructional assignment will begin August 16, 2025 (Academic Year 2025-26) and an early start date of August 1, 2025 is requested, then the PAR should be created for Fiscal Year 2024-25.

The account number entered in PAR Section 1, Funding Distribution, will be pushed to Workday as cost center for base salary. For fall appointments assigned an early start date prior to 8/16, the department will need to make appropriate costing adjustments in Workday. For example, for a fall appointment with an early start date of August 1, the account entered in PAR Section 1 for salary should reflect the funding source effective 8/16. Once the PAR has pushed to Workday, however, the department should adjust costing for the period 8/1-15 to come from the appropriate summer subaccount.

Required documentation

For supplementary materials required in the PAR packet, see the appropriate checklist at COE: PAR - Supplementary Documentation Checklists > Professional-track hires. Note that there are different checklists for Visiting/Adjunct/0% positions vs. other 9-month professional-track positions. Required materials for 12-month Research Faculty PARs are listed at COE: PAR - Supplementary Documentation Checklists > Research Faculty hires.

PAR process

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Offer letters

Note that every commitment of funding (relocation, early start date, TA/GRA, etc.) must be captured in both the offer letter and Section 2 Funding Commitments of the PAR. For assistance with wording of non-standard offer items not included in the EVPP template, please contact COE Faculty Affairs.

Who writes professional track offer letters?

Offer letters for professional track hires are drafted by the hiring departments, in collaboration with any joint hiring departments.  Please contact COE Faculty Affairs with any questions.

Where do I find offer letter templates?

In order to ensure the most current template is being used, each offer letter should be drafted based on a newly-downloaded template for the appropriate hire type based on the Provost's Office current template at FA/APS ServiceNow Portal > Knowledge (top right corner) > FA/APS Knowledge Articles (top left corner) > Offer Letter Templates > Departmentalized CSUs.

When renewing contracts, please use the COE FileMaker Pro professional-track faculty database and template for your department.

What is the offer letter process?

A draft of the offer letter, including a "DRAFT" watermark on each page, should be included in the PAR packet. The draft offer letter does not represent a promise of employment or any other commitment.

Once the PAR is final-approved by the Dean, COE Faculty Affairs will email the PAR packet signed by the Dean to the department Administrative Manager, indicating that the PAR has been approved. When this email indicating approval has been received, the department can send an offer letter to the candidate. However, all PAR information is thoroughly reviewed in the Provost’s Office to ensure compliance, and if errors are found, corrections will still need to be made even if the contract has been signed by the faculty candidate.

After the offer letter has been signed by the candidate, the Administrative Manager should upload the signed letter to the same Faculty Affairs & Academic Personnel Services Portal help ticket on which they submitted the PAR. Once APS has processed the signed offer letter, they will push the hire to Workday.

The department is responsible for maintaining professional track faculty personnel files, including PARs and offer letters.

Can I share a draft of the offer letter with the candidate prior to PAR final approval?

The department may, if they wish, share the draft with the candidate. It must be clearly indicated via watermark that the copy is a draft, and any associated correspondence must explicitly state that the draft is “pending final modifications and approval of the Dean and Provost.” The draft offer letter should not be signed by anyone, as it does not represent a contract. 

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PAR-Workday integration process

Upon final approval of the PAR, the following information is brought over to Workday from the PAR, overwriting the initial data entered on the job requisition:

• Personal information (name and contact information)

• Job Details (benefits eligibility, Job Profile, FTE, etc.)

• Compensation

• Pay Group (determined pay frequency, e.g., monthly)

• Education

• Academic Appointment

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Closing the position

Immediately after the conclusion of a faculty search and/or once the posting is no longer needed, be sure to close the Interfolio position (archive) and indicate an outcome. For searches that did not result in selection of a candidate, add a note about why no selection was made (e.g., cancelled due to lack of funding, position no longer needed, lack of qualified applicants, etc.).

Online training for this step is available at the following links:

• Close a Position - Interfolio Faculty Search Institutional Administrator Training 

• Interfolio — Close a Position and Select Applicant(s)

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Professional-track faculty employment lifecycle

Source: Academic Worker Life Cycle Flow.pptx

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Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu.