L&S Guidelines for Academic Staff Participation in Service and Governance Outside of the Department, Program or Unit

Introduction

Academic staff are hired by a department or unit for specific tasks relating to research, teaching or service. For example, these tasks include carrying out the work of a grant, lecturing in a course, advising undergraduates, or helping students better develop academic skills. At the same time, all academic staff members are part of the academic community at UW-Madison - specifically, they are part of the College of Letters & Science and of wider campus initiatives. Their input and efforts are needed on College committees and initiatives, university-wide committees, mentoring programs for students and staff, and to serve as elected representatives to the governance process. These efforts benefit everybody - students, academic staff, faculty, administrators and classified staff - as well as benefitting the individual who is contributing. They also lead to a more informed workplace. Thus, in the spirit of recognizing both the immediate needs of departments and the ongoing efforts of the wider campus community, we offer the following guidelines.

1. It is part of the normal expectations that academic staff spend some time in the service of college and campus efforts and initiatives. These service activities warrant a reasonable commitment of time and energy which should be coordinated with an individual's other duties and responsibilities.

2. Formal requests for service from outside the unit should go directly to the academic staff member, with a copy to the supervisor, chair or director.

3. All service outside the employing unit should be discussed up-front with the supervisor in order to balance the needs of the unit with the goals of academic staff participation in governance.

4. The amount of time spent will vary in response to the particular needs of the individual, the department, and the wider community.

5. Routine participation is expected to be accommodated by the employing unit. For example, normally, a staff member's schedule should be flexible enough to build in two hours per week, on average, dedicated to committee service and other governance activities.

6. More time-consuming participation may require the adjustment of job responsibilities. See guideline 3 above. Supervisors are encouraged to be as flexible as possible, but sufficient adjustments may not be possible.

7. Departments, programs and units should recognize service as part of the annual merit review process. Not only should the specific activities be listed in annual activity reports, but also a measure of the scope and responsibility level of the contribution should be included.

Accepted by CASI 11/27/01