Academic Department Governance

Department Chair Matters

The 2020 CSU Online Department Chairs Workshop on the CSU Learn platform. Locate the 5 sessions by searching for “2020 CSU Online Department Chairs Workshop.” The recordings will appear together in the search results.

Department Voting Guidance

The faculty voting rights policy does not uniformly apply across the activities, committees, and elections faculty are expected to engage with. The following University Policies direct departments about eligibility of candidates, eligibility of voters, and how much each vote counts across the most prominent faculty-governed processes at SJSU.

Departments also elect representatives to college committees (e.g., Sabbatical, RTP) and department faculty participate in electing representatives to the University Sabbatical Leaves Committee and the University RTP Committee.

Forming Personnel Committees

Department tenure line faculty are responsible for electing colleagues to personnel committees each year. These committees are formed for RTP, Range Elevation, Periodic Evaluation of Lecturers (annual and cumulative evaluations), Periodic Evaluation of probationary faculty (mini review), Periodic Evaluation of tenured faculty (post tenure review), recruitment of new faculty, and Difference in Pay Leaves.

The guidelines below assist department chairs/school directors and faculty with orderly and fair establishment of peer committees needed for faculty personnel recommendations, or faculty personnel committees. Please read this document carefully each year:

Please see the 'Retention, Tenure, and Promotion' and 'Tenure Line Faculty Recruitment' sections below for more information and for training tools for those processes.

Evaluation Calendars

  1. Map of Faculty Success Processes
  2. Faculty Evaluations Calendar (Combined 1 Page)
  3. RTP Calendar [pdf]
  4. Mini Review Calendar [pdf]
  5. Post Tenure Review Calendar [pdf]
  6. Range Elevation Calendar [pdf]
  7. Annual and Cumulative Evaluation Calendar [pdf]
  8. Exceptional Service to Students Assigned Time Calendar [pdf]

Topics in Faculty Evaluations

Retention, Tenure, and Promotion

RTP committee service is described in University Policy as the "highest professional priority" of tenured faculty. The reason is "their participation affects the careers of colleagues as well as the well-being of students and the health of the University."

Committee members must understand the current policies and norms of RTP committee review. Their recommendations should reflect unbiased assessments of their colleagues' accomplishments relative to standards set forth in S15-8, with further explanation from Department Guidelines.

To further ensure fair and equitable review for all faculty, SJSU requires that RTP committee members, at all levels of review, undergo training prior to gaining access to case files. Therefore, Faculty Services verifies that committee members have current completion status for this required course: RTP Committee Training. (requires SJSU login)

Faculty Services staff opens access to applicant files in eFaculty after verifying:

Faculty Services manages access to the committee training course for the Office of Faculty Success.

Training Course Access and Completion:

  1. Chairs and college staff report committee members to Faculty Services via College Committee Sheets.
  2. Faculty Services enrolls committee members into RTP Committee Training AY 23-24 in Canvas (requires SJSU login) and a message is sent to notify the committee member.
  3. Committee members complete all modules of the course in Canvas. (requires SJSU login)
  4. Submission of the final assignment (Module 4, Confidentiality Agreement) indicates course completion. Here is a preview of the form: Confidentiality Agreement Form - RTP Committees [pdf].
  5. Faculty Services adds fully trained committee members to their committees in eFaculty.

Topics in Tenure Line Faculty Recruitment

To maintain fair and equitable review standards for tenure line faculty searches, SJSU requires that members of recruitment or search committees undergo training prior to gaining access to application materials, and they must sign a confidentiality form when charged by their Dean.

Faculty Services staff opens access to applicant files after verifying:

Faculty Services manages access to the committee training course for the Office of Faculty Success.

Training Course Access and Completion:

  1. Chairs and college staff report committee members to Faculty Services via College Committee Sheets
  2. Faculty Services enrolls committee members into Search Committee Training AY 23-24 in Canvas (requires SJSU login)
  3. Committee members complete the course in Canvas (requires SJSU login)
  4. Submission of the final assignment indicates course completion
  5. Faculty Services adds fully trained committee members to their committees in eFaculty.

Topics in Faculty Appointments

Managing Special Requests