Academic Affairs Manual (ACD)
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Effective: 8/15/1990 |
Revised: 11/1/2019
|
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ACD 002: Definitions |
Terms used in this manual are defined as follows:
- Academic/Administrative Unit
- Any component of the university that is involved in the hiring
of faculty, academic professionals, and/or graduate
assistants/associates (e.g., colleges, departments, centers, and
programs).
- Academic Freedom
- See “Professional and Intellectual
Freedom.”
- Academic Professional
- A nonclassified employee involved with research or teaching
programs who requires professional and intellectual freedom and who
reports to a person below the level of provost or vice president,
including librarians and researchers.
- Access Privileges
- Authorization to access and use computers and related
resources.
- Academic Year
- The period commencing and ending with the university’s academic calendar. The university’s academic year calendar is set by the Provost of the University.
- Account
- User identification and related access to computers and
resources.
- ACRD
- Arizona Civil Rights Division, a state agency authorized to
accept, investigate, resolve, or make findings related to charges
of employment discrimination.
- ADA
- Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
- Administrator or Administrative
Staff
- An officer who reports directly to the president or to a vice
president and who is responsible for planning, organizing,
directing, controlling, and evaluating the activities of a major
segment of a university; promulgating and implementing university
rules and regulations; preparing and administering the
organizational budget; maintaining relationships with
administrative officials and members of business, government, and
civic communities. These positions shall include vice presidents,
deans, academic department heads, and other positions as determined
by the university.
- Alternate
Administrator
- An administrator from another department or unit or at a higher
rank than a supervising administrator, who will assume the
responsibilities of the supervising administrator for key decisions
involving a relative of the supervising administrator.
- American Indian or
Alaskan Native
- A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North
America who maintains cultural identification through tribal
affiliation or community recognition. This category includes Native
Americans, Alaskan Aleuts, and Eskimos.
- Anonymous
Communications
- Communication that does not include or masks the identity of
the sender.
- Applicant
- A person who has applied for a position at ASU and has
submitted all required application materials, such as a completed
application form, résumé or curriculum vitae, and
names/letters of references, by the application deadline.
- Appointment
- Employment for a period as specified in a notice of
appointment. The term refers to both the initial appointment and
all subsequent appointments, reappointments, or renewals of
appointments.
- Appointment Renewal
- The process by which an appointment is extended for an
additional period. See also “Appointment” and “Notice of Appointment.”
- Arizona Public Records
Law
- Arizona Revised Statutes §§ 39–121 to
–128.
- Asian or Pacific
Islander
- A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the
Far East, Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, or the Pacific
Islands. This area includes, for example, China, Japan, Korea, the
Philippine Islands, Samoa, the subcontinent of India, and the
Indo-China Peninsula and nearby islands, as well as Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Sikkim, and Bhutan.
- Assets
- Resources such as money, negotiable securities, and property
owned by or under custodial control of the university.
- ASU Web or Home Pages
- Any pages hosted on the asu.edu domain.
- Authorized ASU
Official
- Dean or director of a university unit
or other so designated person by the president or designee.
- Auxiliary Aids and
Services
- Reasonable accommodations that may be provided for sight and
hearing impairments: e.g., qualified interpreter, qualified reader,
note-taker, taped text, transcription service, modification of
equipment, relay service, TTYs, large print, Braille or alternative
print format, telephone amplifier, listening system, open and
closed captioning, audio recording, computer terminal, speech
synthesizer, communication board, etc.
Note: |
The type of service needed will vary from case to
case. |
- Black
- A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of
Africa who is not also of Hispanic origin.
- Board
- The Arizona Board of Regents.
- Candidate
- See “Applicant.”
- Child
- A natural child, adoptive child, foster child, or
stepchild.
- Classified Research
- Research sponsored by a federal government entity that involves
restrictions imposed by agreement or otherwise on the distribution
or publication of the research findings or results following
completion, for a specified period or for indefinite duration.
- Classified Staff
- Positions that are not considered faculty, administrators, or university staff and have certain protections as public employees and whose primary roles are clerical, administrative support, paraprofessional, or maintenance.
- Click Trade
- Services that pay a fee based on the traffic generated by a Web
site.
- College
- The academic organizational unit comprised of one or more academic units, supervised by a dean. Some colleges may be referred to as a “School” or as an “Institute.” For policy purposes, University Libraries is included when the term “college” is used.
- College Web Sites
- Sites developed and maintained by colleges in the asu.edu
domain.
- Committee on
Academic Freedom and Tenure
- A committee selected by the faculty under procedures determined
by the university. One of the responsibilities of this committee is
to carry out hearings in accordance with ACD 509–02, “Grievance Policy for Faculty.”
- Conflict of Commitment
- A conflict that occurs occurs when the time or effort that an employee devotes to external activities interferes with the employee’s fulfillment of university responsibilities, or when an employee makes unauthorized use of university resources in the course of an external activity.
- Continuing Status
- The employment status awarded by a president to an academic
professional who has demonstrated excellence in job performance,
service, and professional development in accordance with criteria
established by ASU. Continuing status for academic professionals creates an expectation
of continued employment unless the academic professional is
terminated or released in accordance with appropriate
policies.
- Courtesy Affiliate
- A person who is neither a student nor an employee, but is affiliated with ASU in order to receive and provide one or more services.
- Day
- Calendar day. If the last day of a specific time period is a
Saturday, Sunday, university holiday, or during a university break
period, the time period is extended to 5:00 p.m. of the next day
that is not a Saturday, Sunday, university holiday, or break day.
In cases of faculty and other employees appointed on an academic
year basis (nine-month basis), day does not include summer,
mid-semester, semester, and other similar break periods.
- Day-to-Day Assignments
- Actions involving assignments on course work, office space,
travel, and other benefits.
- Denial of Service
Attacks
- Bombarding a computer or site with mock or excessive
traffic.
- Department
- The term most commonly used to refer to an academic unit, i.e.,
a sub-unit of a college under the supervision of a chair who
reports to a dean. Because of new organizational patterns in the
university, such units are also sometimes called schools or
divisions. The term “department” may also refer to
divisions or schools.
- Department Chair
- The individual directing a sub-unit of a college and reporting
to a dean. References to “department chairs” may also
apply to directors of schools or divisions.
- Dependent Children
- Children who are considered dependents for federal income tax
purposes, and who have not reached age 30 as of the first day of
the semester for which the special registration fee is
granted.
- Department Web Sites
- Sites developed and maintained by departments in the asu.edu
domain.
- Direct Threat
- A condition or disability that poses a threat to the health and
safety of self or others and prevents an individual from performing
the essential functions of the position or participating in a
program, service, or activity at a safe level even with reasonable
accommodation. ASU must show both high probability of substantial
harm and inability to reasonably accommodate.
- Directory Information
- General information as defined in ACD
121, “Privacy Rights of Students,” that may be
released to anyone without the consent of the student, unless the
student has indicated otherwise. See also “Educational Records” and
“Legitimate
Educational Interest.”
- Disabled
- Any person who has a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more of his or her major life
activities, has a record of such impairment, or is regarded as
having such an impairment. (Major life activities include, but are not limited to, are defined as
caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, speaking,
breathing, learning, and working.)
- Disclosure
- Permitting access, release, transfer, or other communication of
student educational records, or the personally identifiable
information contained in them, orally, in writing, by electronic
means, or by any other means to any party. See also
“Educational
Records.”
- Discriminatory Action
- An educational or employment action constituting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, Vietnam-era veteran status or special disabled veteran status, or genetic information.
- Display Advertisement
- A job vacancy announcement that is two or more columns wide.
These are usually placed in newspapers or professional journals for
faculty and executive-level positions.
- Educational Records
- Any information or data directly related to a student, recorded
in any medium, and maintained by the university or someone acting
for the university, excluding some records specified in the
Student Services Manual
Manual—SSM
107–01, “Release of Student Information.” See
also “Directory
Information” and “Legitimate Educational
Interest.”
- EEOC
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency
authorized to accept, investigate, resolve, or make findings
related to charges of employment discrimination.
- Employees
- All persons employed
by the university on a full-time, part-time, or contract basis,
including faculty and academic professionals (also referred to as
staff or staff member[s]).
- EO/AA Office
- The ASU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Human Resources.
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- The assurance that all employment-related actions are based on
objective, nondiscriminatory criteria. State and federal laws and
regulations prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of
race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age,
disability, Vietnam-era veteran status or special disabled veteran
status, and genetic information. ASU policy also prohibits discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Essential Function
- Fundamental or material job duty, distinguished from marginal
duty.
- Facility
- Building or site owned, leased, used, or controlled by
ASU.
- Faculty Member
- An employee of the board in teaching, research, or service
whose notice of appointment is as lecturer, senior lecturer, principal lecturer, instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor, Regents Professor, professor of practice, research professor, or clinical professor, or whose notice of appointment otherwise
expressly designates a faculty position. Graduate students who
serve as assistants, associates, or otherwise are academic
appointees as well as graduate students but are not faculty
members.
- Family
- Immediate family, established household, or situations that
place primary responsibility for care on the employee.
- Immediate Family
- Parent, parent-in-law, brother, sister, spouse, child, grandparent,and any other relative who is a permanent member of
the employee’s household.
Note: |
For purposes of family medical leave under ACD 702–03, “Family Leave,”
the definition of family member is limited to child, parent, spouse, and domestic partner only. |
- Filing
- Submission of written whistle-blower complaint.
- Fixed-term Appointment
- An appointment to a faculty position as a lecturer or senior
lecturer for a period of time greater than one academic or fiscal
year but not more than three fiscal years.
- Former Employee
- A university employee whose employment is severed through resignation, retirement, or dismissal.
- Gender Identity
- An individual’s personal sense of masculinity or
femininity including external characteristics and behaviors such as
dress, mannerisms, speech patterns, and social interactions.
- Graduate Assistant or
Associate
- A graduate student who assumes employment with the university
either as a graduate assistant/associate, research
assistant/associate, or teaching assistant/associate. See also
“Graduate
Teaching Assistant or Associate.”
- Graduate
Teaching Assistant or Associate
- A graduate student who assumes any teaching responsibility,
including lecturing, leading discussion groups, serving as an
assistant to laboratory classes, grading tests, or reading
papers.
- Grievant
- A current ASU student or employee who files a complaint with a
university grievance committee.
- Hispanic
- A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South
American, or some other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of
race.
- Institutional Base Salary (IBS)
- The base annual compensation set by ASU for an individual’s appointment, whether that individual’s professional effort for ASU is spent on instruction, research, public service, administration, or other activities, and whether that employee is appointed full-time or part-time. IBS excludes income that an individual may be permitted to earn outside of duties to ASU.
In all submissions for funding for sponsored work, IBS is used as the employee’s salary. IBS may not be increased as a result of replacing ASU salary funds with grant or contract funds. IBS and FTE (as shown in the payroll system) of an employee will not be increased or decreased during a fiscal year as a result of receipt or loss of salary support from grants, contracts, and other revenues.
IBS may be changed at the beginning of any fiscal year, and may be increased or decreased at that time. During a fiscal year, IBS of an employee generally will not be changed. However, it may be changed in the following limited circumstances:
- the employee’s formal appointment, and required professional effort, is changed from full-time to part-time, from part-time to full-time, or from one required level of part-time effort to another required level of part-time effort
- the employee receives an increase or decrease in salary as a result of assuming, or relinquishing, specific academic or administrative duties, e.g., serving as a department chair
- the employee receives a cost of living or merit salary adjustment as part of a university-wide adjustment of salaries that occurs during a fiscal year
or
- the employee receives a salary increase as a result of a retention or equity adjustment, promotion in rank or position, or change in employment responsibilities.
- Intellectual Property
- Intangible property rights, including trademark, trade secret,
copyright, and patent rights.
- Key Decisions
- Employment actions involving initial appointment, hire, renewal of appointment, retention, probationary review, annual and other performance evaluations, evaluation for promotion, salary determination, and merit or other salary adjustment.
Educational actions involving instruction include making decisions determining admission, enrollment, assignments, grades, or having a relative as a student in a specific course.
- Known
- Confirmed.
- Lecturer
- A nontenured faculty member whose primary responsibility is
teaching undergraduate courses or clinical courses (see ACD 505–02, “Faculty Membership,
Appointment Categories, Ranks, and Titles”).
- Legitimate Educational
Interest
- An interest in an educational record that is justified as part
of an ASU employee’s responsibility and is consistent with
the purpose for which the records, information, or data are
maintained. (See ACD 121, “Privacy
Rights of Students.”)
- Major Life Activity
- Walking, sitting, standing, lifting, reaching, seeing, hearing,
speaking, breathing, learning, working, caring for one’s
self, and other similar activities.
- Manual Warrant
- A manually prepared warrant not produced by the payroll
system.
- Minority
- A person classified as Hispanic, Black, Asian or Pacific
Islander, or American Indian or Alaskan Native regardless of the
person’s citizenship.
- Misappropriations
- Wrongful uses of assets (e.g., fraud, embezzlement, and
conflict of interest decisions that result in financial
losses).
- Networked Device
- Any device connected to the ASU network, e.g., computers, routers, printers, cell phones, copiers, and PDAs such as Blackberries, Android devices, iPhones, etc.
- Notice of Appointment
- The document that administrators, administrative staff, faculty members, and academic professionals receive
each year verifying an appointment for the fiscal year beginning
July 1 or for the academic year beginning on or about August
15.
- OCR
- Office of Civil Rights, United States Department of Education,
the federal office authorized to accept, investigate, resolve, or
make findings related to complaints of unlawful discrimination in
programs receiving federal financial assistance.
- OFCCP
- Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the federal
office authorized to accept, investigate, resolve, or make findings
related to charges of employment discrimination based on
disability, Vietnam-era veteran status, other protected veteran
status, newly separated veteran status, or special disabled veteran
status.
- Office of University Rights and Responsibilities
- This office investigates claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation; reports to the Office of General Counsel.
- Ombudsperson
- Functions as a mediator between a grievant and respondent; a
member or appointee of the Ombudspersons Committee.
- Other Protected
Veteran
- A person who served in the military during a war or who served
in a campaign or on an expedition for which a campaign badge, a
service medal, or an expeditionary medal was awarded.
- Parent
- A natural parent, adoptive parent, surrogate parent, or
stepparent.
- Personnel
Policies and Procedures for Academic Professionals
- Arizona State University Personnel Policies and Procedures
for Academic Professionals was published in 1986. Most aspects
of this document have now been incorporated in the ACD manual;
consequently, the document now consists of photocopies of relevant
pages from the ACD manual.
- Personnel
Policies and Procedures for Faculty
- Arizona State University Personnel Policies and Procedures
for Faculty was first published in 1982 and revised several
times since inception. All aspects of this document have now been
incorporated in the ACD manual; consequently, the document now
consists of photocopies of the relevant pages from the ACD
manual.
- Postdoctoral Scholar
- An individual who has recently completed his/her doctoral studies and who holds short-term university appointments working under the guidance and direction of a faculty mentor as the individual prepares for a career as an independent scientist and researcher.
- President
- The president of the appropriate university or the
president’s designated representative, and the executive
director of the central staff.
- Probationary
Appointments
- Faculty and academic professional appointments that will either
become appointments with tenure or continuing status within a
specified period of time or be terminated.
- Professional and
Intellectual Freedom
- The right and responsibility to exercise judgment within the
standards of the employee’s profession. Professional and
intellectual freedom is defined as “academic freedom”
for those employees involved in teaching and/or research.
- Proprietary Research
- Research sponsored by a nongovernmental entity or an individual
that involves restrictions on the distribution or publication of
the research findings or results following completion, for a
specified period or for indefinite duration.
- Pseudonymous
Communications
- Communication that uses or implies the identity of an
individual other than the sender.
- Qualified Individual
- Individual with a disability who with or without reasonable
accommodation can perform the essential job functions of a position
at ASU; a student admitted to the university who is eligible to
receive services or benefits from ASU; or a member of the public
who is eligible to utilize facilities or receive services or
benefits from ASU.
- Reasonable
Accommodation
- Change or modification that enables an individual with a
disability to enjoy equal opportunity and/or access. Examples: job
restructure; flexible work schedule; reassignment to vacant
position; reassignment to accessible facility; delivery of service
to accessible site; provision or modification of equipment or
devices; adjustment or modification of qualifications, criteria,
tests, training materials or policies, provided fundamental
alteration will not result from the modification; provision of
qualified readers or interpreters; reallocation of nonessential
(marginal) job functions; unpaid leave.
Note: |
Reasonable accommodation is required for persons with known
disabilities; ASU is not required to provide “best” or
“most desired” accommodation but rather accommodation
sufficient to meet either employment or accessibility needs. Unit
heads or higher-level administrative officers must prepare a
written explanation and consult with the ADA coordinator before
denying a request for accommodation. |
- Record of Impairment
- A prior physical or mental disorder that no longer exists or
qualifies as a disability, but is still classified as a disability.
Examples: mistaken classification as “mentally
retarded” or “learning disabled.”
- Regarded As Having
Impairment
- An individual who has physical or mental impairment that does
not substantially limit a major life activity but who is treated as
though it does. Examples: individuals with controlled high blood
pressure, prior heart ailments, presumptive HIV risk, or
disfigurement.
- Relative (in ACD 515)
- Spouse, parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, sibling, niece,
nephew, child, step-child, grandchild, great-grandchild, and close
relative by marriage.
Note: |
The definition of relative in this policy is based on the
Arizona Hiring of relative law, Arizona Revised Statutes
§ 38–481, and may differ from the definition of
“relative” in other university policies that are based
on other laws or regulations. |
- Relatives (in ACD 204–08)
- Includes spouses, children, grandchildren, parents,
grandparents, brothers, sisters (including half brothers and half
sisters), brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law,
fathers-in-law, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law of an employee.
(A substantial interest of a relative is considered to be that of
an employee.)
- Respondent
- The individual who is alleged to have violated policy.
- Retired
Faculty Member or Academic Professional
- A faculty member or academic professional who has completed at
least five years of continuous, full-time employment in the Arizona
university system immediately preceding retirement, who is
receiving a distribution under an Arizona
university-sponsored retirement program, who is at least 50 years
old, and whose employment has not been terminated for cause by the
university.
- Rule
- A statement of general applicability that implements,
interprets, or prescribes law or policy, or describes the procedure
to be utilized in implementing law or policy.
- Second-Generation
Courses
- Follow-up courses or workshops modeled after an ASU course and
taught by a participant in the ASU course rather than an ASU
faculty member (see ACD 120,
“Second-Generation’ Credit”).
- Smoking
- The carrying or using of lighted pipes, cigars, cigarettes, or
tobacco in any form.
- Special Disabled
Veteran
- A person entitled to disability compensation under laws
administered by the Veteran’s Administration for disability
rated at 30 percent or more, or a person whose discharge or release
from active duty was for a disability incurred or aggravated in the
line of duty.
- Special Pay
- A manually prepared paycheck not produced by the payroll
system.
- Student
- Any individual who is or has been formally admitted to and
enrolled at ASU (see ACD 121,
“Privacy Rights of Students”).
- Substantially Limits
- Prevents an individual from performing a major life
activity.
- Supervising
Administrator
- The administrator who is involved in the day-to-day assignments
of staff in the department or unit in which the supervising
administrator is employed, e.g., department chair, academic unit
coordinator, department director, center head or director. A dean,
director, or vice president may be a supervising administrator if
one of his or her relatives is employed in the same department or
unit in which he or she is employed. A supervising administrator
may participate in the day-to-day assignments of a relative in his
or her department or unit but may not participate in the key
decisions involving his or her relative in the unit.
- Supervisory Employee
- Any ASU supervisor, director, chair, dean, department head, or
other employee who has authority to make or materially influence
significant personnel decisions.
- Teaching or Graduate
Assistant
- A graduate student who assumes any teaching responsibility,
including lecturing, leading discussion groups, serving as
assistant to laboratory classes, reading tests or papers, etc.
(Research assistants are not included in this definition.)
- Tenure
- The employment status awarded by the president to a faculty
member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, and
service in accordance with criteria established by ASU. The status
of tenure creates an expectation of continued employment unless the
faculty member is terminated or released in accordance with
appropriate policies.
- Tenure-Eligible
- Being on a tenure-eligible line, i.e., having an opportunity to be
reviewed for tenure. See “Probationary
Appointments.”
- Theft
- Taking and removing personal property with intent to deprive
the rightful owner of it (e.g., removal of university property by a
university employee that was not entrusted to that employee as part
of his or her official responsibilities).
- Underutilization
- The condition of having fewer women and/or minorities in a
particular job group than would reasonably be expected given their
availability within the labor force.
- Undue Hardship
- Accommodation that would be unduly costly, substantial, or
disruptive, or that would fundamentally alter the nature or
operation of a university department, program, service, or
activity.
Note: |
Consultation with university legal counsel and the ADA
coordinator on a determination is required. |
- University Officer
- ASU president, provost, vice provost, vice president.
- University Officials
- Administrators, department heads, chairs, deans, project
directors, managers, assistant managers, and supervisors.
- University Staff
- University staff is an employment category comprised of non-academic staff and administrators. University staff are employed at will. As an at-will employee, university staff and ASU are entitled to terminate the employment relationship at any time and for any reason except an unlawful one.
- Vice President
- An ASU vice president or provost.
- Vietnam-Era Veteran
- A person who served on active duty for a period of more than
180 days, any part of which occurred between August 5, 1964, and
May 7, 1975, and was discharged or released therefrom with other
than a dishonorable discharge, or who was discharged or released
from active duty for a service-connected disability if any part of
such active duty was performed between August 5, 1964, and May 7,
1975, and who was so discharged or released within 48 months
preceding an alleged violation of the Vietnam Era
Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act.
- White
- A person having origins in any of the peoples of Europe, North
Africa, or the Middle East who is not of Hispanic origin.
- Workplace
- All property owned, used, leased, or controlled by ASU where
university work is performed.
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