Chapter 4 — Section 3 & Appendix A

• 3.0 Complaints against faculty members
• Appendix A

3.0 Complaints against faculty members

Faculty Rule 3335-5-04 establishes the procedures for formal complaints against all faculty, including tenure-track, clinical/teaching/practice, research, and associated faculty members. This rule also applies to administrators who hold faculty appointments when the complaint is related to their faculty duties. 

Under this rule, complaints may be filed against faculty in four categories. Under track one (Faculty Rule 3335-5-04.1), complaints can be made alleging failure to meet faculty obligations. Under track two (Faculty Rule 3335-5-04.2), complaints can be made alleging research misconduct. Under track three (Faculty Rule 3335-5-04.3), complaints can be made alleging sexual misconduct, workplace violence, whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on protected status. Under track four (Faculty Rule 3335-5-04.4) complaints can be made alleging violations of applicable law, university policies or rules, or unit governance documents. 

All records of the proceedings are to be maintained by the Office of Academic Affairs as described in Faculty Rule 3335-5-04. 

APPENDIX A

Directions for Faculty Making a Salary Appeal

1. Affirm the following statements are true:
   1. You are a tenure-track, clinical/teaching/practice, research, or associated faculty member; 
   2. Your salary is 5% or more below the average salary of all other faculty of the same rank and faculty category in your academic unit or in a recognized discipline or subdiscipline with a distinct salary market within your academic unit (TIU for Columbus faculty, regional campus dean/director for regional campus faculty); and
   3. There are at least two faculty, in addition to you, who can be included for comparison. 
       
2. Inform your TIU head or dean/director of your intent to appeal your salary by September 30. 
    
3. Review your TIU, college, and regional campus (if applicable) POA document to determine if there are any additional requirements for a faculty salary appeal. 
    
4. Work with your TIU head or dean/director (or designee) to gather data for your analysis. Together, you will need to identify your comparison group—there must be at least two faculty, in addition to you, included for comparison. You will need the CVs and the teaching records of the past five years for all members of the comparison cohort. The TIU head and/or dean/director (or designee) will assist with providing CVs and teaching records from the campus and/or will assist in securing such information from other campuses and TIUs as needed.
    
5.  Unless your TIU, college, or regional campus (if applicable) POAs specify otherwise, the comparison cohort must include all other faculty of the same rank and category in the TIU (excluding the academic unit head). When a TIU contains distinct and recognized disciplines or subdisciplines that have different salary markets, the comparison group will be limited to all other faculty of the same rank in your discipline or subdiscipline within the academic unit (excluding the academic unit head).
   
   Additional guidance around comparison cohorts for regional campus faculty is provided in section 2.7 in Chapter 4: Appeals and Complaint Procedures of the OAA Policies and Procedures Handbook.
    
6. Organize the collected data in a spreadsheet format (side-by-side columns) for easy comparison across the cohort within specific categories. In this spreadsheet, identify yourself by name, but use only a number (e.g., faculty #1, faculty #2) to identify comparison faculty. Use the following guidelines and any additional guidelines from your unit’s POA as you generate the spreadsheet.
   1. In the first five columns, include title, rank, salary, years of service, and years in rank. If you are a faculty member on a regional campus, add department/school and campus as sixth and seventh columns. 
   2. In the next set of columns, present relevant data on research and creative activity for all years since the terminal degree using the standard major categories from the Promotion and Tenure dossier (e.g., authored books, edited books, refereed journal articles, book chapters). To the extent possible, present comparative data on rates of citation, excluding self-citations, and other metrics as deemed appropriate by the TIU and college or regional campus from the unit APT and POA documents.
   3. In the next set of columns, present relevant data on teaching for the past five years at The Ohio State University using the standard major categories from the Promotion and Tenure dossier (e.g., numbers of lower division, upper division, and graduate courses taught, and number of PhD and MA committees on which the faulty member has served). Note, reduction in teaching loads for individuals holding administrative or research appointments, and individuals who have not served at The Ohio State University for at least five years, are to be excluded from this section of the comparative analysis.
   4. In the next set of columns, present relevant data on service for the past five years at The Ohio State University using the standard major categories from the Promotion and Tenure dossier (e.g., TIU or campus committee assignments, TIU or campus administrative assignments, university committee assignments, major community outreach and engagement, and major service to professional organizations). Individuals who have not been Ohio State faculty for at least five years are to be excluded from this section of the analysis, except that data on service to the profession may be included.
       
7. Based on the data gathered into the spreadsheet, write a brief statement (no more than 250 words) summarizing the research and creative activity, teaching, and service comparisons, highlighting your standing in relation to the cohort. End the statement with your requested salary adjustment, based on your place within the cohort. 
    
8. The analysis must confirm that the salary disparity cannot be accounted for by any of the following: 
   1. differences in years of service and years in rank
   2. productivity in teaching, research and creative activity, and service
   3. past/present administrative duties
   4. market factors
   5. other factors set forth as legitimate bases for salary determination in the faculty member’s academic unit APT document or POA or otherwise consistently communicated and applied in hiring and merit salary increase decisions
       
9. Submit the required comparative data and summary statement to your TIU head or dean/director by February 1. The TIU head or dean/director may request additional information, if needed.