TO: Faculty, Center Directors, Tub Directors, Administrative Unit Directors, Department Administrators and Financial Officers, and Public Information Officers
As I mentioned in my letter of November 24, all current staff hiring is on hold, and only urgent and critical hires will be made at this time. Below I outline the process for determining if positions are urgent and critical. Managers who feel their positions to be necessary even in the new financial situation, i.e., important enough to be funded by cutting equivalent funds from other areas of their budgets, should seek approval via the new procedure for staffing requests that I outline below. Please note that positions funded entirely by sponsored or start-up money are not subject to this new policy and will go forward uninterrupted.
Please share this information with your unit, adding any appropriate local context.
PROCESS CHANGE
I have convened a Staffing Review Committee to oversee all FAS staff† hiring for the coming months. The members of the committee are:
Brett Sweet, Chair
Beverly Beatty, Social Science Division
Nancy Cline, Harvard College Library
Deena Giancotti, Finance Office
Margot Gill, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Georgene Herschbach, Harvard College
Sara Oseasohn, Arts and Humanities Division
Russ Porter, Sciences Division
Geoffrey Peters, Human Resources
Posting requests covered by this new policy should be brought first to your FAS HR representative, who will set a tentative grade and salary range and then refer it to the appropriate administrative dean. The administrative dean will work with you to understand the need for the position, alternatives to filling the position and a funding plan. If the request supports the department's goals within the current and pending budget constraints, the administrative dean will bring the proposal to the Committee. Approved positions will then move forward. Searches that were already underway and have been approved by the Staffing Review Committee to move forward shall recommence where they were put on hold (e.g., already posted positions do not need to be reposted).
TEMPORARY STAFF
Please limit your use of temporary staff. There is a natural tendency to look to temporary staff to take on the tasks of unfilled positions, but doing so dilutes the savings that must be achieved. The Review Committee will monitor these expenditures monthly.
SALARIES and GRADES
Until July 1 or the Committee decides otherwise, all salaries and grades are to remain at their current levels.
QUESTIONS
Please address your questions to anyone on the Committee or to your FAS HR representative.
† Staff includes postdoctoral fellows not supported by sponsored funds. For clarification, the procedure outlined above does not apply to non-ladder faculty, preceptors, lecturers, teaching fellows, or teaching assistants. These appointments are made through a separate process that is currently being reviewed by the academic deans. For questions on these appointments, please contact the Office for Faculty Affairs.