Over the last few years, UUP has made great progress informing our members of the importance of a performance program. Many chapter leaders provide performance program workshops and have made performance programs a priority at labor/management meetings. Some campuses have withheld discretionary salary increases from managers who have not given performance programs to the UUP members they supervise. Still, members tell me their supervisors refuse or delay the process to achieve a performance program. The following provides some things you should know and some things you can do to make sure you have a current performance program in place.

Article 30.2 (pg. 41) of the 2007-2011 Agreement Between the State of New York and United University Professions states that evaluation and promotion of employees will be made in accordance with Article XII (pg. 24-26) of the Policies of the SUNY Board of Trustees. And, Article 30.3 (pg. 41) says that the procedural steps of the Policies regarding evaluation of professional employees are included in Appendix A-13 (pg 76). Article 30.3 also states that these procedural steps are subject to review in accordance with provisions of Article 7, the Grievance Procedure.

Now what does this mean? It means that New York state, SUNY and UUP have worked together over the years to develop a system of evaluation that is taken very seriously. It is the policy of the SUNY?trustees to evaluate the performance of professional employees on a regular basis.

Here is the exact SUNY Board of Trustees policy:

“It is the policy of the University to evaluate on a regular basis the performance of all professional employees and to give such employees consideration for promotion. The Chancellor or designee shall provide for the administration of systems for evaluation and promotion of such employees.”

The importance of this policy is that you cannot be evaluated if you do not have a performance program. And if you cannot be evaluated, your chances for renewal and permanent appointment are jeopardized. If you do not have a performance program, you can also lose the opportunity for promotions and for salary increases if you have been assigned a permanent and significant increase in duties. Your performance program can also help you keep your workload at a reasonable level.

Policies are an important part of university life and I am sure you are aware of the many other policies we must follow. For example, would you light up a cigarette in the president’s office? Of course not. You’d be violating the smoking policy and there may be consequences for the violation. Similarly, a supervisor cannot independently or unilaterally decide to avoid the process to develop a performance program or to do so some of the time.

Here are some steps you can take when you encounter resistance from you supervisor in obtaining a performance program:

• Sometimes supervisors do not realize they are violating a policy. You may be helping your supervisor if you ask, in writing (e-mail is fine), to begin and complete the process for a performance program.

• Contact your UUP chapter leaders for help. They can call human resources or discuss this at a labor/management meeting with the campus president and other campus administrators.

• The fact pattern in your specific situation may establish a right to file a grievance as provided in Article 7 of the Agreement. This gets everyone’s attention.

• If local efforts fail to resolve the situation, contact me at the UUP Administrative Office at (800) 342-4206 and we will work with the SUNY chancellor’s office to complete your performance program.

In addition to your appointment letter, your performance program is one of your most important documents. It should be current and reflect the work you do for SUNY. You may read my article on performance programs in the September 2008 issue of The Voice, which can be found on the Web at www.uupinfo.org.