ANR Update

General salary increase program 2024-2025

The University of California plans to provide a general 4.2% salary increase for eligible, policy-covered staff employees and academic employees, contingent on the outcome of the state budget allocation. UC President Drake recently shared his support of the general increase, along with the expectation that should the state budget be significantly altered, an updated announcement may be shared.  

Policy-covered staff employees

• Salary increases will be implemented as a general increase, where all eligible policy-covered staff employees would receive a 4.2% increase to their base salary, effective July 1, 2024, for monthly and June 23, 2024, for bi-weekly paid employees.  
• Although this year's salary program for policy-covered staff is not a merit program where performance is a consideration related to the salary increase amount, the importance of the annual performance review process should not be discounted. All policy-covered staff employees should continue to receive, at least annually, a performance review per policy. 

Policy-covered academic employees 

• For policy-covered academic appointees, the academic salary scales will be increased by a general range adjustment of 4.2%. The adjustment to the academic salary scales will be effective July 1, 2024. 
• The regular peer-review merit advancement process for policy-covered academic appointees will continue per academic personnel policy.

Represented staff and academic employees

• Salary increases for exclusively union-represented employees are governed by their respective collective bargaining unit agreements, which are separate from this salary plan. 

Eligibility criteria and guidelines will be available and shared shortly. For additional questions, please feel free to reach out to Human Resources at humanresources@ucanr.edu.

Employee Comment: Proposed revisions to APM Section 016, University Policy on Faculty Conduct and the Administration of Discipline

The University invites comments on proposed revisions to the following Academic Personnel Manual policy: 

• APM - 016, University Policy on Faculty Conduct and the Administration of Discipline

Summarized below are the proposed key policy revisions that are being distributed for systemwide review.   

Key policy revisions

The policy revisions respond to the need to revise APM - 016 to address the handling of simultaneous academic misconduct investigations and personnel actions and include: 

• Pause on Academic Personnel Review Actions: At the beginning of a formal investigation of alleged misconduct by a faculty member, if the Chancellor (or Chancellor's designee) finds that any of the alleged misconduct is relevant to the assessment criteria for academic personnel review actions, the Chancellor (or Chancellor's designee) may impose a no-fault pause on any current or future academic personnel action (e.g., for merit, promotion, or advancement) of that faculty member. Locations are responsible for developing implementation procedures that address at what stage in existing local procedures the pause occurs and that identify the offices that have responsibility for providing written confirmation of the pause to the respondent, giving a respondent periodic updates on the status of the investigation, and for notifying relevant administrators of the beginning and end of the pause. 
• Conclusion of the pause: The pause will end when the investigative and disciplinary processes are concluded. In the event of a disciplinary process following a formal investigation, the pause will end when a final decision is made whether to impose disciplinary sanctions. The academic personnel process may then proceed according to campus procedures.

Assistant Professors in Year 8: If the investigative and disciplinary processes are not concluded by the beginning of the faculty member's eighth year of service at the rank of Assistant Professor (or a combination of equivalent titles), the Chancellor is authorized to recommend to the President that the appointment be extended beyond the eighth year, in accordance with Regents Bylaw 40.3(c). 

The proposed APM - 016 is posted to the Academic Personnel and Programs website under the “Systemwide Review” tab. It can also be reviewed here: https://ucanr.edu/sites/PCPA/Revisions/.

If you have any questions or if you wish to comment on this policy revision, please contact Robin Sanchez at rgsanchez@ucanr.edu, no later than July  1, 2024. Please indicate “APM-016 Revision” in the subject line. 

Aggie Enterprise continued support, office hours resume April 16

During this ongoing stabilization period for our new financial system and Chart of Accounts structure, the UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Team has extended its office hours and continues to support users and find concrete solutions to challenges.

If you encounter an issue with a transaction process, report or any other aspect of the new system, please work with your business manager and/or fiscal officer as they partner with the UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Team to address concerns and find solutions. Continued support is also available to all UC ANR Aggie Enterprise users by opening a service ticket via email to ANR-AggieEnterprise@ucanr.edu and attending office hours.  

Office hours (4/16 through 6/13/2024)

Tuesdays and Thursdays 

1 pm to 3 pm

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 530 400 4429

The ANR Aggie Enterprise team will continue to closely monitor user feedback and may extend office hours beyond June 13 based on need.

If you need to escalate an urgent matter, please contact our UC ANR Aggie Enterprise Project Manager Raghuvir Goradia at rjgoradia@ucanr.edu. 

Tu Tran
Associate Vice President, Business Operations

 

Employee Comment: Proposed revisions to APM-710, leaves of absence/sick leave/medical leave

The University of California Office of the President invites comments on the following proposed policy:

• APM - 710, Leaves of Absence/Sick Leave/Medical Leave

The policy is proposed to be revised and includes the following key revisions:

• Proposed effective date of the policy revision is January 1, 2025.
• Policy title updated to clarify the policy applies to paid sick leave. 
• Policy updated to provide paid medical leave to Agronomists, Astronomers and Curators who have a full-time appointment for at least a full academic year. 
• Policy updated to permit paid sick leave accrual and usage to certain academic appointees who have a paid appointment of at least thirty (30) calendar days, and to those with less than 50% appointments.
• Policy updated to provide a paid sick leave bank to all faculty, Agronomists, Astronomers and Curators who have an appointment of at least thirty (30) calendar days.
• Policy updated to provide a paid sick leave bank to academic appointees in university extension who do not accrue sick leave who have an appointment of at least thirty (30) calendar days.
• Policy updated to include protected paid sick leave.
• Policy updated to extend the period during which accrued and unused paid sick leave may be reinstated if an appointee is reemployed after a separation from employment and to address reinstatement of unused days from a paid sick leave bank.
• Policy updated to allow use of paid sick leave for additional reasons, including preventive care and for specified purposes for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
• Policy updated to provide notice requirements for an academic appointee to use paid sick leave.
• Policy updated to include recording of paid medical leave, paid sick leave bank, and paid sick leave accrual and use.

The proposed APM - 710 is posted to the Academic Personnel and Programs website under the “Systemwide Review” tab. It can also be reviewed here: https://ucanr.edu/sites/PCPA/Revisions/.

If you have any questions or if you wish to comment on this policy revision, please contact Robin Sanchez at rgsanchez@ucanr.edu, no later than April 22, 2024. Please indicate “APM-710 Revision” in the subject line.

Deadline extended: Nominate UCCE academics for service awards by April 19

Nominations for the 2024 ANR Distinguished Service Awards will be accepted until April 19. The awards for academics are sponsored by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Academic Assembly Council.

Take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to recognize outstanding achievement by yourself or your colleagues. The biennial ANR Distinguished Service Awards recognize service and academic excellence in UC Cooperative Extension over a significant period of time. Awards highlight the use of innovative methods and the integration of research, extension and leadership.

The purpose of these awards is to recognize and reward outstanding accomplishments in six areas:

• Outstanding Research
• Outstanding Extension
• Outstanding New Academic
• Outstanding Team
• Outstanding Leader
• Outstanding Contribution to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Winners of individual awards will receive a certificate and $2,000. Winners of the team award will share $5,000. Complete award criteria and instructions for submitting nominations are at http://ucanr.edu/sites/UCAAC.

To nominate someone, fill out the online survey at 2024 ANR Distinguished Service Awards and submit all materials in the nomination packet through the survey or alternately, as a PDF, care of Kathryn Stein (kathryn.stein@ucop.edu) by the extended deadline - April 19, 2024, at 5pm.

For more information, feel free to contact the Academic Assembly Council Program Committee:

• Daniela Bruno, dfbruno@ucanr.edu
• Safeeq Khan, msafeeq@ucmerced.edu
• Keith Nathaniel, kcnathaniel@ucanr.edu
• Susie Kocher, sdkocher@ucanr.edu
• Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, nmarshall@ucanr.edu
• Giuliano Carneiro Galdi, gcgaldi@ucanr.edu

For more information about Academic Assembly Council, visit its website at http://ucanr.edu/sites/UCAAC.

Read more