Overview
See EVPP: Personal Circumstances Flag for full details.
Available to Associate and full Professors and non-tenure track/professional faculty.
Faculty Affairs has created a Personal Circumstances (PC) Flag that can be noted on a faculty member’s personnel record. It is analogous to the Probationary Period Extension that tenure-track faculty are able to request. This allows these faculty to designate a year within the scope of a multi-year review as having been impacted by personal circumstances (related to COVID-19 or not). The notation, but not the reason for it, would be available to review committees and provide context for the flagged year.
Requests made in 2020-21 can be associated with events occurring in 2019-20. The flag is not available for events that occurred prior to 2019-20.
The flag can be received by a faculty member twice while in rank. A request to rescind an approved flag may be rescinded in writing.
Personal Circumstances Flags will display in the "Biographical" tab of the Faculty Profile (restricted access), with the academic year to which it applies.
Process
Tenured and professional/non-tenure track faculty should complete and submit a Personal Circumstances Flag Request Form to be routed via DocuSign to their department chair (if applicable), Dean, and the Provost’s Office. Faculty should first contact the Office of the Dean EA for the appropriate email address to enter in the form - it is different from the Dean's standard email address.
If the Dean approves the request, the form will then be routed to the Provost for final approval. If approved by the Provost, the Office of the Dean EA will send a copy of the final-approved form to the department EA.
Approved Personal Circumstances Flags will be documented in the Provost Office's Faculty Profile system.
Impact on faculty reviews
See EVPP: Personal Circumstances Flag for more information, including impact on different types of faculty reviews.
Comprehensive Periodic Reviews
An approved PC Flag does not in and of itself adjust the timing of comprehensive periodic review, but should prompt reviewers and peer review committees to reframe the review period for the faculty member. For example, if a faculty member is going through comprehensive periodic review has been approved for one PC Flag during the period of time under consideration, the peer review committee should consider the body of work as having been completed in five years rather than six.
Promotion Review
Reviews are considered accelerated when the number of years in rank less the number of PC Flags is fewer than six. For example, a tenured Associate Professor in their sixth year in rank who has one PC Flag would be considered accelerated where a tenured Associate Professor in their seventh year in rank with one PC Flag would not be considered accelerated.
Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-HR@austin.utexas.edu.
