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Michael D. Eisner College of Education

College of Education

Tips for PIFS


 
 
 
 
 
 
The following are suggestions for faculty compiling their Personnel
Information Files for retention, tenure and promotion.
 
 
1. Solicit input from your Department Chair or her/his designee to assist in constructing your PIF prior to filing the PIF with the Dean's office. Also, you may wish to consult with successfully promoted faculty from the College of Education.
 
2. As you construct your PIF and vita review: * The Administrative Manual, Section 600 Academic Personnel Policies and Procedures (Sections 630-649) * Your Department's Personnel Policies and Procedures * The APA Manual, 5th edition
 

3. Consider the following suggestions in formatting/organizing your PIF and vita:

 
3.1. Include a cover letter that provides a summary or your reflections of strengths and accomplishments. You may want to highlight what has been particularly rewarding or productive.
 
3.2. Use tabs to separate material in the PIF with a summary "Index" at the beginning of the PIF.
 
3.3. Provide material in your PIF from the date of your most recent promotion. However, if it is important to show an historical record of, for example, multiple editions of a textbook you have been authoring for a number of years, include the material.
 
3.4. Change fonts in your vita to distinguish material from the date of your most recent promotion and materials prior to that time.
 
3.5. Cross reference material that is appropriately placed in more than one section of your vita. For example, if you presented a paper at a conference which was also published in a journal, it would be appropriate to have such work noted in your vita as part of your "presentations" and as part of your "publications". You might cross-reference the "paper presented" for the reader by stating in your vita where the article is in your PIF under "publications".
 
3.6. Distinguish among those publications peer-reviewed and "other work not peer-reviewed". For example, McGraw-Hill will publish material for faculty at universities but this material may not have been subject to any peer review process. Copy the article and include the journal cover or title page.
 
3.7. Distinguish "invited presentations or papers" at conferences and symposia from "papers presented" and "presentations". Don't include the programs from conferences or symposia.
 
3.8. Community Service in the PIF is broadly conceived and the activity stated should "identify the person as a faculty member of CSUN". For example, treasurer for the local church group is probably not appropriate but participating in "Habitat for Humanity" and being identified as a faculty member of CSUN may be appropriate.
 
3.9. Be judicious in your inclusion of material!! "Smaller"
 
 
4. Review your Personnel Action File (PAF).
 
5. Provide 12 copies of your vita to the College of Education Personnel Committee. These should be in a folder at the front of the PIF along with one coy to remain in the PIF. You may also want to provide a copy to your Department Personnel Committee members and your Department Chair.
 
6. Submit the PIF to the Dean's office on:
 
7. It is appropriate to update some materials in your vita while the PIF is under review if such updating clarifies a particular activity. For example, you may have an article that is currently under review, you state that in your vita and turn in your file for review. During the review process at the Department and College level, you are notified that your article has been accepted for publication. You may update that vita entry accordingly but you must have the approval of the Chair of the College of Education Personnel Committee of the change. However, no changes are to be made after you have received your recommendation letter from your Department Chair or your Department Personnel Committee.

 

 

Advice for Your Professional Information File (PIF)

Provivded by CFA, Northridgde Chapter

1 Be reminded that consideration of your case is based entirely on the information that is in your Pro Personnel File (see Article I I of the Agreement between the Board of Trustees and the CFA).

2. Ask your Department Chair and/or the Chair of major your Departmental Personnel Committee to provide you with a copy of any particularized Department and/or College criteria that have been approved by the University Personnel Planning and Review Committee. If your department and/or college has such particularized criteria, be sure to review them carefully. Make sure that your Professional Information File also addresses these criteria.

3. Remember that during any personnel consideration of (your Personnel Action File (PAF) and your Professional Information File (PIF) are merged in consideration as one single rile. At CSUN, your College Dean has been designated as the custodian of the Personnel Action File for probationary and tenured faculty. The Department Chair is the custodian of the Personnel Action File for lecturers. You have the right to make an appointment to inspect your Personnel Action File at any time that you wish. It is advisable that you inspect your Personnel Action File at the beginning of any personnel cycle so as to be certain that it is correct and complete.

4. Remember that except when you are under consideration and your PAF and PIF are merged into a single file for consideration, you are the custodian of your Professional Information File and it resides in your possession. Thus its maintenance, its contents, its organization, and its presentation are your responsibility. Do your work on it well to ensure that it is thorough, accurate, and easy to read.

5. The physical presentation of the file is important. Your colleagues who will be reviewing your Professional Information File and making their recommendations must easily be able to find information that they may be looking for. Thus, it is advised that you organize your file into the categories that are in The Administrative Section 600 and that you present it in the same chronological order as that of Section 600 (Sec. 606, p.7). Faculty committee members are accustomed to seeing material presented in this form- You should have these five major categories: 1. Professional Preparation (resume); 2. Teaching Effectiveness and Direct Instructional Contributions; 3. Contributions to the Field of Study; 4. Contributions to the University and 5. Professional and Personal Responsibilities (your value to the University).

6. All assertions that you make in your Personnel formation File, particularly for your most recent past years, should be substantiated with clear evidence. That is, if you presented a paper at a conference, include in your file a copy of the official program that lists your paper and a copy of your prepared text of the presentation.

7. Remember that your file will be reviewed by colleagues who are familiar with your discipline as well as colleagues who may have no familiarity with your discipline. Therefore, be sure to present your material so that it is as understandable as possible to colleagues unfamiliar with your discipline. For example, give full names of the journals you have published in. IJAL would be clear to linguists, but for non-linguists, International Journal of American Linguistics would give colleagues unfamiliar with this discipline a better of comprehending the citation as well as looking up information about that journal, should they care to do so. Include information about the significance of community organizations since your colleagues may not be familiar with them.

8. Do not neglect any of the five major categories of sure your file. It is well to include positive reports of classroom visitations and other evidence of teaching effectiveness from previous years in your PIF (the reports for the current cycle will be in your PAF). Although the rhetoric at CSUN says that since "teaching" is the most important category, it appears that it may not be the category that is most carefully examined by your personnel committee colleagues, department chairs, and deans. While you should always strive for excellence in teaching, and it is clear that very poor teachers will is encounter trouble in the review process, it is the category of "Contributions to the Field of Study" is that is most carefully examined and often carries the most weight with your colleagues.

9. Be particularly thorough in your preparation of the Contribution to the Field of Study category. Be exact in what you say about your publications and your research in progress. If the work has been printed and released for publication by a recognized press or journal, it is a published work. Give under complete citation of the work and include a inserted printed copy of it in your file, If the work is in become press, submit copies of galley proof of the work. If the work only has been accepted for publication, do not cite it as a "published" work but rather, accurately indicate that it has been "accepted for publication." Include in your file evidence that it has been "accepted for publication" such as a letter from the editor indicating that it has been accepted for publication. Be sure that you also include in your Professional Information File a complete copy of the manuscript that has been accepted for publication. If the work has been submitted for publication, include in your Professional Information File a copy of the manuscript and the correspondence that indicates its submission and receipt by the publisher (an acknowledgement of receipt of a manuscript is the same as "acceptance for publication"). Be sure to list your contributions in each category in chronological order (oldest to most recent, or recent to oldest). It must be clear to readers of your file which contributions you have accomplished since you were hired at CSUN and/or your last promotion at CSUN. However, be sure to include, in chronological order, all of your professional accomplishments of your entire professional career.

10. Be sure that your Professional Information File is complete and carefully documented with evidence. Proof read. Do not pad it. A big file is not necessarily good, unless it consists of forty books and two hundred and fifty articles. Never exclude relevant evidence, but do not include irrelevant material just to make your file look big. A big disorganized file (or a small disorganized file, for that matter) is not viewed positively.

11. Prepare carefully the index to your Professional Information File for each cycle that you are under consideration. A copy of this index will be inserted into your Personnel Action File and will part of your permanent record.

Compiled by Elizabeth Berry, Paul Mary Finley, CFA

 

 

KEEPING RECORDS ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

If you begin - from the time of your initial appointment to keep records of your activities and accomplishments, you will be able to construct a viable Personnel Information File quite easily when the time for any review arrives.

TEACHING

SCHOLARLY, RESEARCH, AND CREATIVE WORK AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

UNIVERSITY, PROFESSIONAL, AND COMMUNITY SERVICE