Academic Employment

DO NOT BEGIN WORKING UNTIL YOU HAVE DISCUSSED YOUR EMPLOYMENT WITH THE PERSONNEL COORDINATOR AND COMPLETED THE HIRING PROCESS IN UCPATH!
Please contact our Personnel/Payroll Manager, Celina Keefer to discuss your academic employment.

As a research institute (and not an academic department), ISBER cannot employ individuals in teaching titles. The academic titles that we use for those involved in research or other academic activity who do not fit the criteria of the ladder faculty or teaching titles are: Professional Researcher, Project Scientist, Specialist, Postdoctoral Scholar* and Academic Coordinator. Policies & procedures are located in Academic Personnel’s Red Binder.

Section III discusses Temporary Research Titles (Researcher, Project Scientist, Specialist & Postdoc Scholar*) and Section V addresses the Academic Coordinator series.

Please contact our Personnel Coordinator, TBD (contact Chiara DiMarco and Claudia Diaz) when you are interested in hiring someone in an academic title. There are many steps to the process, and most of these appointments require conducting an open recruitment which can take several months, so you must plan ahead.

See Red Binder VII-1, Policies On Open Recruitment for Academic Appointments and also the Office of Equal Opportunity & Sexual Harassment/Title IX Compliance, with whom we work during the entire recruitment process.

*Postdoctoral Scholars:

Note that Postdoctoral Scholars are unique and we must abide by the strict definition when hiring people into this title. Postdoctoral Scholar appointments are intended to provide a full-time training program of advanced academic preparation and research training under the mentorship of a faculty member (defined as ladder faculty or professional researcher). Though Academic Personnel defines the policies, the Graduate Division has approval authority, and there is an MOU with the UAW.

The “Postdoctoral Scholar Classification” flowchart on the Graduate Division website may be helpful in determining if the candidate is appropriately appointed as a Postdoctoral Scholar, and if so, which of the titles to use.

Postdoc appointments require:

  • Employed in a full-time training program of advanced academic preparation and research training under the mentorship of a faculty member

  • Five years or less since PhD

  • Initial appointment of at least one year

  • Appointment is 100% time

  • Must be hired at or above the experience year salary minimum. If a Paid Direct’s funding is less than the minimum, the PI must supplement

The policy applies to both (1) Postdoctoral Scholars who are employees of the University and (2) Postdoctoral Scholars who are appointed as fellows and are paid stipends by extramural agencies either directly or through the University.

System-wide policies regarding Postdoctoral Scholars may be found in the Academic Personnel Manual, APM 390 and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Salary Scales:

Academic Personnel Salary Scales can be found at the UCSB Academic Personnel website, under Academic Compensation and Benefits - UCSB Salary Scales.

For Academic Coordinators (Title Codes 0841, 0843 & 0845), we use the fiscal year (Table 37 – also note that there are 3 pages, each level on a separate page of the table)

For Professional Research Series:

  • Table 13 (fiscal year) TCs 3220, 3210 & 3200 is for non-faculty Researchers
  • Table 11 (acad year) TCs 3223, 3213 & 3203 reserved for faculty released to grant
  • Table 12 (acad year 1/9th) TCs 3225, 3215 & 3205 reserved for faculty during summer

Release to Grant

(Red Binder VI-14 - Extramurally Funded Research):

During the academic year a faculty member may not use grant funds to earn in excess of his or her regular 100% salary. The faculty member may, however, with the permission of the Chair and Dean and funding agency, use the grant funds in place of a portion, or all, of his or her regular state funded salary for a limited amount of time. This is called a release to grant, it is not additional compensation. The salary being paid from the grant funding must be paid under a Professional Research title, rather than the Professor title. Payments are made on the same basis and at the same pay rate as the Professor appointment (9/12).

A faculty member may be paid from a fellowship administered through UCSB. Payments during the academic year are considered leaves with pay (see Red Binder VI-7F).

Summer Salary (Additional Compensation)

(Red Binder VI-10)

On this campus, additional compensation during the Summer quarter is allowed for academic appointees paid on a 9/12 basis. This is possible because the individual works for the University from September through June, but receives 12 paychecks spread over the year. If they do additional work for the University during the Summer, they can be paid additional money. They will continue to receive their regular pay as well as the additional compensation. Additional compensation payments for research activities are made at the 1/9th rate. The total additional compensation during the summer may not exceed the equivalent of 3/9ths of the faculty member’s annual salary. 1/9th may or may not be equal to one month, depending on the type of payment and calculation method used.

Academic Employment Forms

Personnel Data Form (PDF)

Personnel Data Form (Docusign)

Personnel Data Form

Employment Request Form (PDF)

Employment Request Form (Docusign)