Committee on Merit

Committee on Merit

 

 

GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

MEMBERSHIP

The Library-Wide Merit Advisory Committee shall consist of no more than three (3) librarian members who shall be nominated by the Academic Assembly of Librarians and three (3) members who shall be appointed by the Dean of Libraries.

Members will be appointed by the Steering Committee of the Academic Assembly of Librarians.

When the distribution of librarians makes it possible, there will be at least one member for each Librarian rank on the committee. The Steering Committee may use its discretion to appoint a committee with representatives from as many categories as possible, and may appoint more than one librarian from the same rank or category if needed.

The Chair of the previous year’s Merit Committee shall serve as an ex-officio advisor for the current year’s Committee and arrange/attend only the committee’s first meeting. At this meeting the new Merit Committee will elect a chairperson. (It is recommended that the chair be a senior staff member.) At this time the new chairperson should receive access to the merit folder. The folder contains documents useful to the committee, including copies of the forms, notes and advice, and a listing of the composition of previous merit committees.

 

FUNCTIONS AND PROCEDURES

Merit applications will be due at the same time as annual report, at the end of July. Specific due dates for other parts of the process will be decided by the previous year’s committee. This timeline should be approved by the Director of Administration before distribution to TAUP members. Since the committee will not be formed until August, the chair of the previous year’s committee should provide TAUP members with a form to send to supervisors indicating the intention to apply for merit.

The Committee will solicit applications and supporting documentation from all TAUP members. The Director of Administration will request letters from all applicants’ supervisors to be added to the documentation.

The nominator/nominee is responsible for submitting sufficient documentation to the Merit Committee to allow the Committee to make a decision. Materials submitted by the applicant and supervisor are the only documentation the Merit Committee will consider (see committee checklist).

The Committee will review and discuss the documentation for each candidate. Following this review and discussion, the Committee will reach a consensus on whether to recommend the candidate for Merit and at what level. The committee will assign a level of either highest, outstanding, deserving, or not recommended.

Once the Committee has reached decisions for all candidates, it will prepare a report for the Dean of Libraries indicating:

  • Whether merit is recommended for the candidate.
  • Reasons, drawn from the submitted documentation, for recommending the candidate for Merit.
  • The level of Merit recommended

 

Members of the Committee, if nominated for merit, will not participate in the discussions of their own nominations. Recommendations for nominated committee members will be added to the Committee’s report by Committee members selected by the Committee for that purpose.

All nomination forms and supporting documentation will be forwarded to the Dean of Libraries along with the Committee’s recommendations by the date agreed upon in the timeline. The Dean of Libraries will carry the process forward as defined in the TAUP contract, Article 21, “Salary Increases for Faculty, Librarians, and Academic Professionals,” specifically Section D. Librarians.

Updated 09/21/11, 5/25/2018