There are a number of ways that individuals can communicate with review committees. Listed below are four communication methods that have been reviewed and approved by University legal counsel. The aim of these various mechanisms is to provide an honest, frank, and reliable method for review that is fair both to the individual being reviewed and the reviewers.
1) Letter to the committee. Written communication with the review committee may be by signed letter. Written comments become part of the permanent personnel file that is sent to the appointing officer's office at the completion of the review and is available to the candidate.
Unsigned or anonymous letters will not be accepted.
2) Email to the chair or any member of the review committee. According to University policy, email is treated as written correspondence. As such, email comments are printed and become a part of the committee's file which is turned over to the appointing officer at the end of the process and which is part of the personnel file of the candidate.
3) Telephone call to or personal meeting with the chair or any member of the review committee. Notes relating to information provided by telephone or personal meeting are the property of the individual committee member and do not become part of the committee's file and are therefore not turned over to the appointing officer at the end of the process. Such personal notes cannot constitute a "shadow file" on the candidate under review. Such notes should be used only as memory aids for purposes of discussion and then discarded.
4) Personal appearance before the review committee. As with telephone calls or personal meetings with the chair or members of the review committee, notes generated by the committee member during a meeting with the committee as a whole are the property of the individual committee member and do not become a part of the committee's file and are not turned over to the appointing officer. Individuals appearing before the review committee may declare at the beginning of their appearance their wish to remain anonymous, insofar as attribution in the committee minutes of specific comments. However, a list of all persons appearing before the committee shall be kept by the committee chair and shall be part of the official records of the review committee's work. No allegation by any individual of misconduct on the part of the candidate under review will be accepted except upon the basis of a written, signed statement from the individual making the allegation.
5) The chair of the review committee is responsible for keeping minutes of the committee's discussions in accordance with State law, and shall assure that information on which any aspect of the committee's recommendations is based is reliable, including attribution to sources, especially in the case of expressed concerns regarding performance of the candidate and any allegations of misconduct.
6) It is the responsibility of the appointing officer and the candidate under review to assure that the open exchange of views envisioned by this process remain free of any act or threat of reprisal for responsible use of this process to express opinions about the job performance of the candidate under review.
