HR Policies

Procedure for Resignations/Departures:

1.  Faculty Member: Dean to talk to faculty member about what he/she would like in terms of recognition; Staff Member: Director of HR to talk to staff member or supervisor; Associate Deans, Directors and Program Directors: Dean’s office to organize a lunch
2. Organize event (involve long term department people to lead)
3. Faculty to contribute money toward catering (maximum $200)
4. Individuals to contribute money toward gift
5. If no celebration, then make alternate arrangements (ie. Collect money for gift, arrange lunch, etc.)

The Faculty may contribute funds or gifts to faculty or staff members that retire or leave their positions, according to their length of service:

• 1-5 years - $50
• 6 years - $60
• 7 years - $70
• Up to 30 years - $300

Before placing a request for a business card order, please read over the following guidelines (as per UBC Supply Management):

Who Can Use Official UBC Stationery

Only full-time UBC Faculty and Staff are authorized to use the UBC stationery templates. Undergraduate and graduate students  are not permitted to use official UBC stationery.

How to Pay for UBC Stationery

A box of 250 business cards is $33.23, and a box of 500 is $49.47 (single-sided).

A departmental speedchart is required to place your order. The billing information will be uploaded to the UBC finance system and the invoice will be paid from the speedchart provided.

Note: You must have signing authority or have received authorization from the person with signing authority on the speedchart to order. The authorizer’s name must be included at the time of the order.

How Long Does It Take to Receive an Order

On average, expect to receive your order in 5 – 8 business days. Cards will be delivered to the Dean's Office in the H.R. MacMillan building.

Note: If you require your order sooner, please specify so in your order request. Rush orders cost an additional $30.00 and will be delivered in 3 business days.

The Relationship Between Xerox Global Services (XGS) and Data Group

XGS has partnerships with preferred vendors, such as Data Group, and is responsible to UBC for the overall management of service, quality control and cost savings for all UBC stationery. XGS and Data Group are the only approved suppliers of UBC business cards and stationery; no other printer has been supplied with the authorized template.

Note: Business cards and stationery printed by other means are not official UBC stationery and the university will not approve the funds regardless of the funding source. This applies to the entire catalogue of stationery items.

Required Information

To place an order request for business cards, please email Shannon Wong (lfs.web@ubc.ca) and include the following information:

• First & Last Names
• Credentials (Optional — Please use a comma between each credential. If all of your credentials and your name do not fit on the same line, credentials will automatically move to the second line)
• Title (Up to two lines, maximum)
• Faculty Name
• Department (Optional)
• Program, Group or Institute (Optional)
• Office Address (Split over two lines)
• Phone/Fax/Cell Numbers (Up to a maximum of 3 numbers)
• Email, Website Addresses (Will appear on the same line)
• Speedchart the order will be charged to

(April 24, 2017)

Preamble   

UBC’s Collective Agreement (CA) with The Faculty Association states that: “The academic workload of a faculty member is a combination of self-directed and assigned tasks undertaken in fulfillment of his/her academic responsibilities in the areas of teaching, scholarly activity and service to the University and the community” (Part 1, Article 13.01a).¹  The CA recognizes that workload is unit specific (Part 1, Article 13.01b).¹ All faculty members of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS) are expected to contribute to the Faculty through contributing to teaching, research/educational leadership, and service.

This Policy outlines the typical expectations across the three domains.  To the degree possible, it also aims for equitable contribution and to recognize differences in individual circumstances by delineating exceptions to these expectations in each domain.

The allocation of duties for the Research Stream faculty members (Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor) is normally 40% full-time equivalen (FTE) teaching (30% classroom teaching + 10% graduate student supervision), 40% FTE research, and 20% FTE service.  The allocation of duties for Educational Leadership Stream faculty members (Instructor, Senior Instructor, and Professor of Teaching) is normally 60% FTE classroom teaching and educational leadership, 20% FTE educational leadership, and 20% FTE service. Lecturers, whose main responsibility is teaching, is normally 95% FTE classroom teaching and 5% FTE service.

UBC Policy Number 22 places the responsibility for decisions with regard to the assignment of teaching duties with Department Heads and School Directors (Article 3.2).² Assignments of teaching duties in LFS are made annually by Program Directors in consultation with the Dean and Associate Dean, Academic, who provide oversight to maintain consistency across the Faculty.

1. Teaching

1.1 Classroom instruction

As degree program instruction forms a key component of the LFS’s core mission, it is fundamentally important that all faculty members contribute to teaching and learning in our degree programs.  All faculty members are expected to conduct high-quality classroom/online teaching.

Expectations    Research Stream faculty members’ normal classroom teaching commitment consists of 7.5 credits of instruction (30% FTE) with a minimum of 6 credits of undergraduate instruction.  A minimum enrollment of 5 students per academic year is required to be counted as a teaching contribution.  Contribution to graduate instruction may vary among graduate programs.  Faculty members will be called upon to contribute more in graduate instruction should the circumstances warrant.  Under such circumstance, it is the Associate Dean Graduate Studies’ responsibility to make the final decision in consultation with the faculty members in the graduate program.  Educational Leadership Stream faculty members will normally teach five full-term undergraduate courses (15 credits; 60% FTE) per academic year.  Lecturers will normally teach 18 credits per academic year.  For the purpose of clarification and consistency, the expectations are subjected to the following general principles:

• Three credits of undergraduate instruction consisting of approximately 39 student contact instruction hours;
• Other classroom or program teaching is pro-rated based on the number of in-classroom or direct contact hours involved;
• Co-teaching is pro-rated based on the number of faculty members involved. For example, if two faculty members teach a standard 3-credit course with 19.5 direct contact hours/faculty member, each faculty member’s involvement is counted as 1.5 credits;
• Gaining teaching experience is an important part of post-doctoral fellow (PDF) training. A faculty member co-teaching a course with a PDF/research associate will count it as teaching a full course if they can provide evidence that their contribution is equivalent to full instruction of a course.  For the purpose of this Policy, if a PDF is the sole instructor of a course, this course is not counted as part of the PI’s teaching commitment;
• Teaching responsibilities with additional financial compensation is not counted toward a faculty member’s normal teaching load; and
• The quality of teaching is important. Quality of teaching will be evaluated by the Associate Dean, Academic annually using various methods including the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SEoT) course evaluations.  If concerns arise, they will be discussed with the instructor, to increase the effectiveness of the teaching and learning activities.

Exceptions       A number of factors warrant a reduction of 3 credits of undergraduate instruction.  These factors include:

• Faculty members with significant administrative roles. Major administrative roles within the Faculty may limit the ability of the faculty member to fully participate in classroom teaching.  Those roles include the Dean, Associate Deans, and Program Directors.  The Dean retains the right to make an equivalent determination for other administrative roles on a case-by-case basis;
• Research chairs or salary awardees. Faculty members who hold a research chair appointment or receive salary awards often have a reduced teaching commitment as part of their appointment.  This would include, but is not limited to, CIHR New Investigator Awards, MSFHR Scholar Awards, Industry Research Chairs and Canada Research Chairs;
• Faculty members with reduced appointments or joint appointments. For example, a faculty member who holds a 50% reduced appointment would be expected to teach one full-term undergraduate course (3 credits) and contributing to teaching a graduate course every other year.  The Dean, in consultation with the Associate Deans when appropriate, makes these decisions with respect to reduced work arrangements;
• New tenure-track Research Stream faculty members. In recognition of the importance of developing a strong research program, new pre-tenure Research Stream faculty members will not be given a teaching assignment in the first year of their appointment, will teach one full-term undergraduate course (3 credits) in their second year, and assume full teaching responsibility starting in their third year;
• New tenure-track Educational Leadership Stream faculty members: In recognition of the importance of establishing new courses, new pre-tenure Educational Leadership Stream faculty members will be given a reduction of three credits of undergraduate instruction in the first year of their appointment; and
• Too few courses available for all faculty to teach two: Should the course offerings in the Faculty number fewer than 2 full-term undergraduate courses per faculty member per academic year, it is understood that some faculty members will carry one course during some academic years. If this is an ongoing situation, there will be a rotation among faculty members with regard to who carries one course rather than two.These faculty members should be prepared to add a course when the opportunity arises or when colleagues need relief.  Decisions with respect to this exemption will be made by the Program Director in consultation with the Associate Dean, Academic and the Dean.

These factors are not additive and at no time may a faculty member have their teaching commitment reduced to zero, except faculty members who are on study, administrative, or medical leaves.

1.2 Graduate Student Supervision

As a Faculty with graduate-level programs, Research Stream faculty members are expected to play an active role in graduate student supervision.

Expectations    Research Stream faculty members will:

• Be active as the supervisor for thesis-based graduate students. Faculty members who do not supervise thesis-based graduate students should be able to demonstrate active efforts at recruiting students, such as supervisory commitment letters for new students;
• Have an active role in the committee membership of other graduate students. This includes membership on Thesis Research Supervisory, Final Oral Examination, and/or Comprehensive Examination Committees; and
• Maintain an active role in supervision of students in professional programs where appropriate;

Exceptions       Factors that might lead to a lower supervisory load would include:

• Faculty members with significant administrative roles. These roles include Dean, Associate Deans, and Program Directors.  The Dean retains the right to make an equivalent determination for other (combinations of) administrative roles on a case-by-case basis;
• Faculty members with reduced or joint appointments; and
• Faculty members on approved sabbatical or administrative leave;

2. Research / Educational Leadership

As a research-intensive Faculty, all Research Stream faculty members are expected to:

• Maintain an active portfolio of research projects;
• Actively seek and obtain peer-reviewed competitive funding as the principle investigator to support their research projects; and
• Publish the results of their scholarly investigation, as the lead, senior, or corresponding author in peer-reviewed journals on a regular basis.

All Educational Leadership Stream faculty members are expected through their activities at UBC and elsewhere to advance innovation in teaching and learning with impact beyond their classroom.  Education leadership includes but is not limited to such things as:

• Application of and/or active engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning;
• Significant contributions to curriculum development, curriculum renewal, course design, new assessment models, pedagogical innovation and other initiatives that extend beyond the member’s classroom and advance the University’s ability to excel in its teaching and learning mandates;
• Teaching, mentorship and inspiration of colleagues;
• Formal educational leadership responsibility within Department/Program/Faculty;
• Interprofessional education programs;
• Organization of and contributions to conferences, programs, symposia, workshops and other educational events on teaching and learning locally, nationally and internationally;
• Creation of organizational conditions that support excellence in teaching and learning;
• Contributions to the theory and practice of teaching and learning, including publications, book chapters, articles in peer-reviewed and professional journals, conference proceedings, software, training guidelines, instructional manuals or other resources;
• Educating colleagues on innovations in teaching and learning at international, national, regional, campus, faculty or departmental events with a goal of others adapting the innovative ideas to evolve their teaching practices; and
• Other activities that support evidence-based educational excellence, leadership and impact within and beyond the University.

For Research Stream faculty members who do not meet the minimum research expectations, additional teaching and service responsibilities will be assigned.  For Educational Leadership Stream faculty members who do not meet the minimum educational leadership expectations, additional teaching and service responsibilities will be assigned.

3. Service

All tenure / tenure-track faculty members are expected to engage in service to the Faculty, the broader UBC community, the broader scholarly community, and the public.  Assignments of service duties in LFS are made by the Program Director in consultation with the Dean and Associate Deans.

Expectations    At a minimum, faculty members should be engaged in the following academic service activities:

• Attend a minimum of 50% of the following meetings:
  • LFS Faculty meetings;
  • LFS Community meetings; and
  • Program meetings.
  • Maintain active participation in service to the Faculty/University, including:
  • Participation in at least one non-compulsory LFS Committee (e.g., the Curriculum Committee, Peer Review of Teaching Committee, Safety and Security Committee, and Space Committee, etc.); and
  • Active participation in at least one additional UBC committee. This can include committees at Faculty or UBC level;
  • Maintain active participation in serving the community at large;

References

1. Collective Agreement Between the University of British Columbia and The Faculty Association of The University of British Columbia July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2016.
2. Policy 22, Appointments and Extension of Appointments for Heads of Academic Units. Article 3.2.

Policy Statement:

“On occasion, extreme weather events may disrupt access to campus. UBC is committed to continuing to provide services and operations.  The University will remain open during snow storms but may cancel or reschedule classes on a university-wide basis and/or curtail non-essential services in response to conditions.”

The university’s official policy is Disruption of Classes/Services by Snow Policy: the Snow Policy (SC5) (formerly Policy #68).

Procedures:

1. If the university curtails classes/exams or services, the announcement will be made by 6:00am at https://www.ubc.ca. The UBC website is the authoritative source of information and will give the most accurate and up-to-date information as to the status of the university.
2. Cancellation of classes/exams, curtailment of services, or a statement about non-essential services being limited are not a closure. A curtailment of services means that the university is operating at a reduced service level and has made the decision to cancel some or all classes, some or all exams, and/or some services.
3. At UBC Vancouver, the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Enrolment & Academic Facilities will make the decision on a possible curtailment of services after consultation with designated individuals across campus.
4. In the event that the University messaging is not clear or there are conflicting reports between the UBC website and what is reported in the media. The Dean’s office will implement the Faculty’s internal communication plan.
   1. Post a bulletin on the Land and Food website (https://www.landfood.ubc.ca/).
   2. Set up an outgoing message on the Dean’s Office main phone line (604-822-1219).
5. Should classes continue and individual staff and faculty members decide not to come to work, it is their responsibility to contact their supervisors and indicate their absence. Please refer to Compensation section.

Essential Service Staff:

Individual arrangements should be made by staff and faculty members within areas that require essential services, such as research laboratories/facilities and animal care facilities.  Units should have plans in place for coverage.

Compensation:

In the event the Faculty of Land and Food Systems offices are closed, employees are not expected to report to work, unless designated essential.  Regular wages will be paid for the day.

If Faculty offices are open, employees who choose not to come to the workplace must advise their supervisor if they are:

1. working from home; or
2. using vacation time; or
3. proposing to make up the time; or
4. take the day off without pay;

Statement

This policy is being put in place to ensure a respectful environment within the Faculty of Land and Food Systems among faculty, staff and students in regard to bringing personal pets to work.

Process

LFS faculty, staff, students and visitors who would like to bring a pet to work on a regular basis must complete an agreement form:  [download LFS Pet Policy Agreement]

In addition, the following stipulations are required by pet owners:

• Signage indicating that your pet is in your office must be placed on your door
• Permission is required from colleagues prior to bringing pet to shared office space
• When outside of the office, the pet must be on a leash at all times
• If there is a negative impact on operations or if safety is a concern, you will no longer be able to bring in your pet
• Students and instructors cannot bring pets into classes
• Approval of Program Director/Director is required
• If you bring in your pet on ad hoc basis, please inform your Program Director and the Dean’s office in advance
• Pet owners will be held responsible for any personal or property damage caused by their pet
• This policy does not apply to service animals providing assistance to persons with disabilities and where the service animal is certified as a guide animal

Policy Statement:

It is the policy of the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems to support professional development of staff members within the Faculty.

Eligibility:

Expenses must be related to professional development that enhances the knowledge, performance, or career progression of an employee’s work in the Faculty. Eligible expenses may include a wide variety of opportunities and related travel expenses. Applications will be reviewed by a Committee and evaluated on a case by case basis.

Employees will be eligible up to a maximum of $500 per fiscal year (April 1 – March 31). This funding limit will be pro-rated for part time employees. Employees cannot accrue funds from year to year, or borrow against future years. Every effort will be made to respond to each request as soon as possible.

Employees must exhaust all other sources of funding at UBC related to professional development before applying.

• Tuition waivers for UBC courses are also available to employees: https://hr.ubc.ca/benefits/benefit-plan-details/tuition-waivers

Procedures:

Employees must obtain approval from their supervisors before applying.

Application forms may be accessed here

Contact:

• Faculty: Melanie Train melanie.train@ubc.ca
• Staff: Barbara Hsaio barbara.hsiao@ubc.ca

Peer review is one mechanism by which faculty members can learn from one another, share practices, and encourage excellence in teaching. Peer reviews provide a basis for acknowledging especially meritorious teaching, for example in the Killam Prize for Teaching. Summative peer evaluations are required for reappointment, promotion and tenure by the Faculty. Candidates are encouraged to seek formative reviews whenever they wish to have feedback on their teaching. In addition, the Faculty may request reviews in cases where there is a concern with teaching performance. Scheduling reviews is the responsibility of the Candidate, with guidance as appropriate from the Program Director and Dean.

Assistant Professors and Instructors

Candidates require complete summative peer reviews in the academic year before reappointment, promotion and tenure submissions. Candidates are strongly encouraged to seek formative peer evaluations at least once before a summative review. Summative reviews are required for nominations for teaching awards.

Schedules for summative peer evaluation (and suggested formative reviews) are given below:

Associate Professors and Senior Instructors

Summative Peer Review is required for promotion; this should be conducted the year before the candidate wishes to be considered for promotion. Candidates are encouraged to have a formative review before the summative is required.

Lecturers

A summative review is required for Lecturers in Year 3 of service and every 5 years thereafter. Formative reviews are encouraged in the year before a summative review.

When Student Evaluations of Teaching Fall Below Expected Standards

The Associate Dean Academic and Program Directors regularly review student evaluations of teaching. When these evaluations fall below the level of excellence expected for our Faculty, the Dean will be notified and a peer review may be triggered.

Download a PDF: LFS Policy on Faculty Merit and PSA Procedures

Preamble
The Faculty of Land and Food Systems is committed to ensuring a fair and uniform process for the
allocation of Merit awards and Performance Salary Adjustments (PSA) for faculty members in all its
programs and those jointly appointed in two or more units.

Eligibility
All faculty members who are continuing members of the bargaining unit and active during the period
reviewed are eligible to be considered for merit and PSA, including members on reduced
appointments, maternity/parental/adoptive or sabbatical leave. In accordance with the Collective
Agreement (2.04c, p.36), all faculty members must submit a summary of their relevant
scholarly/educational leadership, teaching and service activities.

Review Committee
The Dean appoints three Merit and PSA committees (APBI, FNH and FRE) in April of each year.
Each committee (including the Chair) has the mandate to review faculty submissions to determine the
appropriateness of awarding a merit and/or PSA allocation. As much as possible, these committees
will be representative of ranks (e.g. junior and senior faculty, teaching and research stream), sub-disciplines, and the demographic diversity of our unit’s faculty.

The membership of these review committees will be shared with the faculty when the awards are
announced. In the event that the committee membership is not announced, the reasons will be
communicated to the faculty. Membership on the review committees will rotate periodically.

Review Process
The merit recommendations will be based on an analysis of each faculty member’s contribution to
teaching, research and service during the period of review (e.g. April 1 to March 31). Descriptions of
expectations can be found in the Collective Agreement, Part 4: Conditions of Appointment for Faculty.
In cases where a faculty member has not had the opportunity to engage (or is not expected to
engage) in one of these activities, the recommendation will be based on the other two activities. For
example, if a research stream faculty member is unable to teach, merit will be assessed on research
and service.

PSA recommendations are based on overall performance over a period of time that is worthy of
recognition; the relationship of a faculty member's salary to that of other faculty members taking into
consideration total years of service at UBC; and market considerations. According to the Collective
Agreement, PSA will not normally be awarded in the first three years of a faculty member’s
employment.

The review committees will focus primarily on those accomplishments and activities of individual
faculty members that support the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Faculty members whose
teaching, research or service is done primarily outside of the Faculty will need to indicate how their
work connects to the Faculty.

Faculty members holding joint appointments will be reviewed by our respective merit review
committee and the joint department’s merit review committee. The recommendations from each
department/faculty should reflect their level of engagement within each department/faculty. The Dean
will meet with the joint Department Head or Dean to confirm the recommended ranking.

All committee members will be required to review each file submitted within their Program, except
their own. The discussion of each specific case will be initially led by a primary reviewer followed by
secondary reviewer, and the others will be asked to provide additional input. Individual research,
teaching, and service scores are submitted by each member and finalized following the discussion.
Individual faculty are scored ranging from 1 to 10 in their respective areas (research, teaching,
educational leadership, or service), based on excellent/meritorious performance for someone in that
field and career stage and circumstances. These scores are not a ranking of individuals in comparison
to their peers reviewed that year, but individual judgements of the performance for each activity.

The committees assess merit using a weighted ranking system (with some exceptions):
   Research stream: research (40%), teaching (40%) service (20%)
   Teaching stream: teaching (60%), educational leadership (20%), service (20%)
   Lecturers: teaching (80%), service (20%)

When assigning a research score, if necessary the primary evaluator will consult with those in the
individual’s field (or faculty subgroup) to ascertain what typically constitutes meritorious performance
in that field.

When assigning a teaching score, the committee will consider a combination of teaching load, class
size (student evaluations tend to be higher on average for very small classes), student evaluations,
and peer evaluation where relevant. Curriculum development, pedagogical innovation or
dissemination, and directed studies leadership should also be considered. Additional teaching taken
on during the review period for compensation will not be considered.

While assigning a service score, the committee will consider uncompensated service to the Faculty,
research group, or other academic or extension organizations pertinent to the individual’s field. Some
service contributions may carry more weight than others and will need to be evaluated according to
the committee’s discretion.

Committees are assigned a merit point allotment based on the number of people reviewed as a
function of the total number of faculty submitting merit documents, with a few units held back for the
Dean to assign at his or her discretion. Once scores are finalized for each individual, the committee
determines merit recommendations based on the rankings and their assigned units. The committee
also creates a list of recommendations of faculty members warranting PSA, along with rationale.

Once the reviews are complete, the committee Chairs meet with the Dean and submit their
recommendations for both merit and PSA. The Dean considers their recommendations and makes
the final decisions based on information received. If a faculty member’s contribution outside of the
Faculty cannot be assessed internally, the Dean will consult with the Provost before determining the
final rankings.