AA/PPS 04.02.31 - Faculty Access to Academic Personnel Files

POLICY STATEMENT

Texas State University is committed to ensuring faculty access to their academic personnel files.

1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

   1. The Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs maintains an academic personnel file on each faculty member. This file contains employment related materials, such as the hiring application, contracts, tenure and promotion decisions, and other employment-related documents.

   2. Additional files, which vary in their content, may be maintained by the faculty member’s department, school, or college. Human Resources may also maintain personnel records.

   3. Individual faculty members who are currently employed by Texas State University may examine their personnel files, regardless of where they are maintained. This policy describes procedures for reviewing academic personnel files maintained within the division of Academic Affairs.

   4. The procedures to gain access to these files contain safeguards designed to ensure that material is neither removed nor added during a review.

2. PROCEDURES FOR FACULTY ACCESS TO ACADEMIC PERSONNEL FILES

   1. A faculty member desiring to review their personnel file in an academic office should address a written request to the individual whose office maintains the file (e.g., the provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, the college dean, and the department chair or school director). A faculty member desiring to review their personnel file in Human Resources should address the associate vice president for Human Resources for procedures for accessing their file.

   2. A representative of the office receiving the request will respond by contacting the faculty member to establish a mutually convenient time for reviewing the file.

   3. The file will be reviewed by the faculty member in the presence of a representative of the office. The representative may require presentation of a Texas State photo identification card prior to proceeding with the review. No material is to be added to or removed from the file during this process. Photocopies or print copies may be made upon request.

   4. At the completion of the first review of the file, a copy of the Faculty Personnel File Review form will be dated, signed by the faculty member and the office representative, and added to the file. Each succeeding time the file is reviewed, the form will be dated and signed by the faculty member and the office representative. This form is to be kept in the office housing the file reviewed.

3. REVIEWER OF THIS PPS

   1. Reviewer of this PPS includes the following:

      Position	Date
      Associate Provost	January 1 E8Y

4. CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

   This PPS has been approved by the following individual in their official capacity and represents Texas State Academic Affairs policy and procedure from the date of this document until superseded.

   Associate Provost; senior reviewer of this PPS

   Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs