PTF Fall Contract Maintenance
- Ann Kelble
Professional-Track Faculty Fall Contract Maintenance:
Purpose:
To outline the college’s process for managing professional-track faculty (PTF) contracts that are beginning in the Fall semester of an academic year, or not carrying forward from the Spring or Summer semester of the previous academic year.
For general information about these contracts--their purpose, function, and related definitions and processes--please see the Professional-Track Faculty (PTF) Mass Transactions UT Workday webpage, especially the Overview, Important Reminders, and Workday processing sections, as they contain valuable information about contract maintenance, not just for mass processes.
COLA will utilize the Mass PTF processes for Fall semester, for any actions where the service is offered and the College meets the minimum number of transactions to qualify for their use. For BPs that cannot be completed via mass processing, units are responsible for routing BPs in Workday to properly maintain their professional track faculty for the Fall semester, though COLA HR will work with units to facilitate and assist with this process.
The three main processes with which staff will engage are “renewal,” “inactivation,” and “reactivation.” Staff are responsible for ensuring that all affected faculty are either renewed, inactivated, or reactivated. Staff may also choose to terminate faculty who will not be returning within the next three years.
Deadlines (these are hard deadlines driven by the Provost’s deadline for submitting spreadsheets to them for mass processing):
July 1– Signed offer Letters for faculty being renewed or reactivated uploaded to WD
July 1– Excel online spreadsheets (Renew/Inactivate and Reactivate) completed
Relevant Definitions (for Fall process)
Contract Maintenance: the process of ensuring faculty who will be teaching in the Fall semester have the correct contract in place; and/or ensuring that faculty who taught in Spring or Summer, but are not teaching in Fall, are moved into the appropriate job profile.
Professional-Track Faculty (PTF): Formerly known as non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty; per HOP 2-2010 Faculty Titles, appointments to these faculty titles are (unless otherwise indicated):
not on the tenure track;
may be “short-term, two- or three-year fixed term, or two- or three-year rolling term;
“may be full- or part- time”; and
“shall terminate upon expiration of the stated period of appointment without notification of nonrenewal.”
Contract: in Workday, the mechanism which defines the time period of a professional-track faculty member’s active employment at UT
Rolling Contract: A three-year contract that is extended each year by an additional year, so that in the Fall of every academic year, the faculty member’s contract is renewed for a full three-year term. New rolling contracts are not allowed in COLA, although existing rolling contracts are allowed to continue.
Multi-year, fixed-term contract: A contract for either two years or three years that is only renewed at the conclusion of that two- or three-year term.
Contracts vs Offer Letters: In our common discourse, “offer letters,” are considered “contracts,” and we often use the two interchangeably. However, it is important to remember that in Workday, a contract is a specific component of managing professional track faculty appointments. Workday provides an opportunity to upload an offer letter as part of the contract process, but, in Workday, contracts and offer letters are distinct rather than interchangeable.
Expiring Contract – for the purposes of this process, a contract ending on 5/15/YY or 8/15/YY.
Reactivation: the process of returning an inactive faculty member to active teaching, with a contract beginning on 8/16/YY
Renewal: the process of extending a faculty member’s contract from Spring or Summer through the Fall semester.
Inactivation: the process of transitioning a faculty member who taught in Spring or Summer, but is not teaching in Fall, into a new, inactive (F-INA) job profile.
Termination: Workday BP term describing separation from UT Austin emploment; the person has no plans to teach again at UT or the unit has no intention of having the person teach for them again within the next three years/indefinite future.
RPT0976: “Faculty Positions Missing Contracts – RPT0976”; Workday report that determines if any faculty are missing a contract
RPT0240: “Faculty Contracts Mass Process Template - RPT0240”; Workday report; useful for identifying expiring contracts for a given sup org/subordinate orgs (i.e. the whole college or department, etc.)
RPT0813: “Faculty - Not Active Jobs - RPT0813”; Workday report used to identify current inactive faculty for a given sup org & its subordinate orgs.
Modified Service: Hiring a retired faculty member to come back to teach.
Process:
Mass Renewal and Inactivation Processes:
*** Signed offer letters must be uploaded to WD, or the faculty member will be removed from the mass renewal spreadsheet.
To upload signed offer letters:
Obtain signed offer letter.
Upload this to the faculty’s Workday profile
Go to Personal section>Documents
Click on Add button
Select the signed offer letter for upload and include a descriptive comment, such as “Fall 20YY offer letter.”
To renew or inactivate your faculty:
Review the "Fall_24_Mass_Renew" Spreadsheet.
This is generated via RPT0240.
Staff can generate this sheet on their own for their unit/s, but please submit information via the shared spreadsheet.
For everyone in your unit, enter “yes” or “no” in column “N” (is the dept renewing the contract?).
If you have a faculty member on a rolling contract, and you are maintaining the rolling contract, you must renew the contract and extend the current end date by one year. If you have a faculty member on a rolling contract and you wish to not renew or phase out the “rolling,” prior approval from COLA HR is required.
Enter the future contract type in column “O.”
a. The expectation is that the future contract type will be the same as the current contract type (column “K.”)
b. If seeking to change the contract type, prior written approval from COLA HR or the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs is required. Approval needs to be obtained prior to extending an offer letter.
Enter the future contract end date in column “P.” Options are: 12/31/YY or 5/15/YY for instructional faculty, or 8/15/YY for research (12-month) faculty.
Enter comments in column “Q,” remarks.
Minimum Comment Requirements:
Renewing “blank” at “0; 13.32/26.68/40” SWH. Will teach “1-1/2-2/3-3/1 course/2 courses/3 courses” in 20YY-YY/Fall 20YY. Offer letter uploaded to WD on MM/DD.
e.g., Renewing Professor Plum at 40 SWH. Will teach 3-3 in 2024-25. Offer letter uploaded to WD on 06/27.
If column “D,” (multiple positions) is marked “yes,” add comment confirming that teaching assignment has been coordinated with additional positions and include a date of when confirmation received.
e.g., Confirmed Fall teaching schedule with ENGL 7/2/22.
If seeking to change the contract type, must provide a detailed explanation.
If appointed at 0 SWH, please provide an explanation; if an instructional overload approval is required, please note the date the overload request was submitted.
Please include any other comments you think would be helpful and/or useful.
COLA HR will review the spreadsheet and comments and work with units to facilitate and ensure completion of faculty renewals outside of the mass process. Staff will refer to the Spring PTF guidance for instructions on “manually” maintaining faculty outside the mass process.
Reactivate Process:
*It is possible that COLA will have fewer than 10 reactivations, in which case reactivations will not qualify for the mass process, and COLA HR will work with units to ensure reactivations are completed outside the mass process. Staff will refer to the Spring PTF guidance for instructions on “manually” maintaining faculty outside the mass process.
*** Signed offer letters must be uploaded to WD, or the faculty member will be removed from the mass reactivate spreadsheet.
To upload signed offer letters, see above.
To reactivate your faculty:
Review the “Fall_2024_Mass_Reactivate” Spreadsheet.
This is generated via RPT0813.
Staff can generate this sheet on their own for their unit/s, but please submit information via the shared spreadsheet.
For everyone in your unit, enter “yes” or “no” in column “I.” (Is the dept reactivating the position?)
Future job profile (column “J,”) must be the same as previous job profile (column “H,”), unless the faculty member has a joint position, the joint position has been reclassified, and approval is on file to reclassify the joint position during the reactivation process.
Enter the future scheduled weekly hours in column “K.” Options are: 0; 13.32, 26.68, and 40.
Enter the future contract type in column “L.”
Any contract type other than “Faculty Short Term” requires prior written approval from COLA HR or the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Approval needs to be obtained prior to extending an offer letter.
Enter the future contract end date in column “M.” Options are: 12/31/24 or 5/15/25 (unless approval has been obtained to extend a multi-year contract).
Enter comments in column “N,” remarks.
Minimum Comment Requirements:
Reactivating “blank” at “13.32/26.68/40” SWH. Will teach “1-1/2-2/3-3/1 course/2 courses/3 courses” in 20YY-YY/Fall 20YY. Offer letter uploaded to WD on MM/DD.
If column “D,” (multiple positions) is marked “yes,” add comment confirming that teaching assignment has been coordinated with additional positions and include a date of when confirmation received (e.g., confirmed Fall teaching schedule with ENGL 7/2/YY).
If appointed at 0 SWH, please provide an explanation; if an instructional overload approval is required, please enter the Service Now ticket number.
Please include any other comments you think would be helpful and/or useful.
Related Policies and Key Reminders:
COLA Offer Letter/PTF Appointment Requirements:
Offer letters should use current templates as provided by the Provost: https://provost.utexas.edu/aps-faculty/
Offer letters may NOT include an increased nine-month academic rate. Rather, a contingency line may be added: “We expect this academic rate may be adjusted further, effective 8/16/24, consistent with college and university salary policies and available funding.”
Should use approved SWH/FTE numbers [listed below]
Offer letters must specify teaching assignments, corresponding with these guidelines.
Deviations from these guidelines must have approval via the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs on file.
In most situations, deviations from these guidelines must be specified and explained in offer letters.
Both Fall and Spring (when applicable) teaching assignments need to be specified. If spring courses are unknown, the letter will mention that specific course assignments are to be determined. However, the letter needs to specify the teaching load across the academic year, e.g.:
Your teaching load for YY-YY will be 3-3. In Fall you will teach …. Spring course assignments are TBD (or if not, state the courses).
Compensation for appointments above 3 courses or 12 contact hours within a single semester, or appointments that would otherwise bring an employee above a total of 40 SWH across all jobs, requires an approved Instructional Overload Form (see wiki page).
SWH/FTE appointments for professional track faculty:
**Note: Classroom contact hours and FTEs refer to a single semester
3 to 5 classroom contact hours: 13.32 SWH/33.3% FTE
6-8 classroom contact hours: 26.68 SWH/66.7% FTE
9-12 classroom contact hours: 40 SWH/66.7% FTE
Structuring year-long appointments with an imbalanced teaching load will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
As noted in the Offer Letter section, teaching more than three courses or 12 classroom contact hours within a semester requires an approved instructional overload.
Tips:
To view existing contracts in Workday, from the faculty member’s profile page, select “Actions,” and choose “Employee Contracts” from the drop-down menu.
Review the FYI copy of faculty with future contract end dates not currently requiring renewal or reactivation.
Although these faculty do not need their contract within WD maintained at this time, in many cases it may be necessary or advisable to provide the faculty member a current year offer letter. Please reach out to COLA HR as needed for guidance on this question.
Other Related Links:
COLA Faculty Policies - including those relating to faculty titles, contract types, and workloads
Workday Professional-Track Faculty (PTF) Mass Transactions page - includes information about contract maintenance and WD guidance
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