| Policy Title | Faculty Utilization of Secretarial Services |
|---|---|
| Responsible Office | Human Resources |
| Policy Type | Personnel and Payroll |
| Policy Number | 622 |
| Last Revision Date | 1/4/2024 |
The Chancellor has issued guidelines concerning faculty utilization of secretarial services, based on a committee representing CSEA and the University. Part I of those guidelines reads as follows:
“Department chairmen, or where appropriate, division chairmen, are to be responsible for establishing procedures and for supervising the use of secretarial services in individual departments of the University."
The following guidelines are provided to support the above statement from the Chancellor. These guidelines have already had the benefit of discussion and suggestions by the Vice Presidents and Deans. Questions regarding the implementation of the statement from the Chancellor should be addressed to the office of the appropriate dean.
- Department chairmen, program directors, and deans of non-departmentalized schools are responsible for supervising the use of all State funded secretarial services assigned to their unit. In that capacity they shall interpret the guidelines in sections 2 and 3 of Chancellor Boyer’s memo of June 18, 1975, entitled “Report of Committee on Faculty Utilization of Secretarial Services,” and make determinations as necessary of whether or not work submitted to department secretaries by faculty falls within these guidelines. It is the responsibility of chairmen, directors, and deans to inform all members of their faculty and all departmental secretaries of these guidelines, to insure that the secretaries are not given the burden of making individual judgments in response to faculty requests.
- Faculty with typing and other keyboarding requirements, the status of which is unclear under the guidelines, shall obtain an interpretation from the chairman, director, or dean prior to submission of material to a secretary.
- With respect to guideline 2 of the Chancellor’s memo, interpretations regarding manuscripts will take into account the intent of publication. A scholarly book or monograph, which might incidentally result in very modest royalties, may appropriately be typed. Typing of a textbook manuscript is inappropriate. Typing of reports in connection with work for which a consulting or other fee has been received is clearly inappropriate. Within a wide range, supervisors must make judgments of the relationship of a manuscript to “enhancement of professional or University prestige,” but recognizing that an expectation of more than trivial direct remuneration to the author excludes the manuscript.
- It is clear that departmental secretaries are not to be assigned typing of theses or dissertations of faculty or of students.
- Chairmen, directors, and deans are responsible for assigning priorities for secretarial staff, and may limit time assigned for typing approved articles, papers, and manuscripts because of other demands on secretarial time.
Faculty Utilization of Secretarial Services
State University of New York
99 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12210
Office of the Chancellor June 18, 1975
To: Presidents, State-operated campuses
Subject: Report of Committee on Faculty Utilization of Secretarial Services
The Agreement executed on October 30, 1974, between the State University of New York and the Civil Service Employees’ Association, Inc. provided for the establishment of a joint State University-CSEA Labor Management Committee on faculty utilization of secretarial services.
This Committee, composed of four representatives of State University management and five chapter officials from CSEA, was to study the types of secretarial support required by departmental faculty, and recommend general guidelines on the assignment of secretarial services within academic departments.
I have reviewed the Committee’s report, and I endorse the following guidelines:
- Department Chairmen, or where appropriate, division chairmen, are to be responsible for establishing procedures and for supervising the use of secretarial services in individual departments of the University.
- Department secretaries are expected to type articles for journals, papers to be presented at learned gatherings, and manuscripts, as long as such publications are not expected to bring direct remuneration to the author. The criteria for eligibility in such cases would be enhancement of professional or University prestige. Such work may be done during regular working hours and on a time-available and priority basis, with the understanding of all concerned that this work also constitutes normal University business.
- Secretarial services funded through the State Purposes Budget are not to be used for the preparation of theses, dissertations, or like documents which have for their purpose the obtaining of a Master’s degree or a Doctorate.
Ernest L. Boyer
Contacts:
Director of Human Resources, 607-777-4939
Associate Vice President for Human Resources, 607-777-2187
