STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION

Policy Type:
Personnel and Payroll

Policy Number:
606

Last Date Revised:
9/11/08
Policy Title:
Change in Status, Academic and Professional Staff
The following office is responsible for the accuracy of the information contained in this policy:

Human Resources

GENERAL

There are a variety of instances where faculty and professional staff change their status at the University, which necessitates required and appropriate transactions.  These are actions taken subsequent to initial appointment, in all cases.  Such actions may include renewal of term appointment, renewal of temporary appointment, the designation of permanent appointment, starting and returning from leaves of various types, resignation, non-renewal and other forms of termination, changes in title, grade or salary, promotion and reclassifications. 

When any of these changes occur in the professional status of academic or professional staff, the department must initiate a HR smart form indicating the appropriate change, along with required supportive documentation as appropriate.  Departments should feel free to contact the Human Resources Office for specific guidance. The HR smart form moves electronically to the HR department and is then shared with offices as appropriate, including the Budget Office and the Vice President's Office.

The HR Office then inputs the change of status into the Oracle HR system, the SUNY HRMS system and other required systems. In some cases, such as reclassification or promotion, it is critical that the department sponsoring the request communicate as early as possible with the Human Resources to assure that the appropriate position is in place at the time the transaction is to be effective. Often, especially for personal service regular lines, it may take up to a month or more to assure that the position title change is effected on the schedule of positions at the Office of the State Comptroller in Albany. The more notice the Human Resources Office has of the possible change, the better.

If the change of status involves a change in title for a professional employee, a revised performance program should be forwarded to the Human Resources Office no later than 30 days following the effective date of the change.

LEAVES

When the change in status involves a leave of any sort, it is often best for the employee to consult with the Human Resources Office to explore options and alternatives. Sometimes HR will require back up documentation as per practice or law. Leaves that include child-rearing leave, family medical request leaves, general leaves without pay should be discussed with both the home department and the HR Office. For faculty requests having to do with sabbaticals or title F leaves, faculty and professional staff are required to apply to the Dean for these leaves in a timely fashion and to provide those offices with sufficient information regarding proposed activities and research to be conducted throughtout the leave.

TERMINATION

In the event of non-renewal, resignation, retirement or death of an academic or professional employee, a discussion with the Human Resources Offices is important. When transferring to another SUNY unit, often prior service credit requests are important to understand as well as the transfer of accrued leave credits and establishing continuity of benefit coverage.  The death of an employee triggers the Human Resources Office to counsel the family and make appropriate notifications to various systems in the state system.  Any professional employee non-renewals require extensive discussion and planning with the Human Resources Office prior to implementing that action.

CHANGE OF EFFORT

Changing employees from part-time to full-time or vice versa often has important ramifications for the employee in a number of ways, i.e., contractual notice periods, employee benefits packages, amount of accruals earned, etc.  Since those transactions will generally also involve salary changes, it is critical to communicate with the Human Resources Office as far in advance as possible regarding these changes.  These kinds of changes also necessitate a change in the schedule of positions certificate at the Office of the State Comptroller in Albany, thus requiring coordination and advance notice. 

Contacts:

Employment Team, 7-6625
Employment Team, 7-6948
Associate Director of Human Resources, 7-2187

Management Procedures
100 - Budget and Finance 600 - Personnel and Payroll
200 - Business Affairs 700 - Binghamton University Foundation
300 - Information Technology and Information Security 750 - Research Foundation
400 - Facilities and Property 800 - Security and Safety
500 - Institutional Services 900 - Office of the Provost