Key Contacts
Madel Sotomayor – hiring, appointments, distributions, visas, payroll, benefits, leave, FMLA
Jessica Doty – payroll, UFIDs, student assistants/OPS
Pam Marlin – graduate appointments, registration, and tuition waivers
Russ Walker – effort certification
Benefits and Retirement questions: benefits@ufl.edu
Leave questions: central-leave@ufl.edu
Courtesy Faculty
Courtesy faculty status is a non-remunerative appointment for those individuals who will provide substantive and sustained contributions to achieving the mission of the department and the university. Some examples of contributions are graduate committee service, collaborative research, or a visiting scholar. Courtesy appointments must be renewed periodically. Researchers who wish to request courtesy status in Physics must follow the courtesy faculty process, which begins with RISC screening in PageUP, using the link below.
RISC Screening for courtesy appointments
Affiliate and Graduate Faculty Status
Affiliate status and Graduate faculty status are different. Affiliate faculty are UF faculty whose home department is not physics but participate in department activities and may receive other privileges, such as listing in the department faculty directory. Graduate faculty status is a designation for faculty (inside or outside of physics) who are authorized to serve as chairs or members of graduate committees of PhD students in Physics. Requests for affiliate or graduate faculty status should be made to the department chair.
Faculty who have retired from the department can return with graduate faculty status. This requires a courtesy appointment.
Organizational Chart for Physics Administration
Physics Admin Organizational Chart
Alternative Work Location
Physics TEAMS staff may request an alternative work location (AWL, or remote work) arrangement that is either temporary or long-term. Temporary AWL arrangements of no more than 14 calendar days can be approved by the chair and the immediate supervisor. Longer-term requests must be approved by the college as well. Staff and supervisors should review the department’s AWL policy carefully before making the request:
Faculty Effort
The university requires that the department assign effort to faculty at the start of each semester and that faculty certify their actual expenditure of effort after the end of each semester. This gives rise to two forms that faculty must complete each semester:
Faculty assignment report (FAR) – The chair uses the FAR to assign the faculty member to a certain proportion of teaching, research, and service activity for the semester. These proportions are understood to be approximate. Faculty must acknowledge the assignment. When they complete effort certification (below), they will have the opportunity to enter a more correct statement of their actual effort allocation for the semester.
Effort certification report – After the semester is over, faculty are required to certify their effort report, which indicates the proportion of effort expended on teaching, research, and service activities. Faculty can adjust the individual percentages on this form so that they reflect actual effort as accurately as possible.
Graduate letters of appointment
Graduate students in the Physics Department are appointed for 9 months during the academic year (Fall and Spring semesters) and then are appointed for 3 months in the summer. The full year of 12 months comprises 26.1 pay periods of 14 days each. The fall letter of appointment covers the 9-month academic year (August to May), which has 19.5 pay periods. The summer letter of appointment covers a 3 month period (May – August) which has 6.6 pay periods. The letter of appointment requires a minimum of 9 graduate credits in fall/spring and 6 graduate credits in summer.
Each student holding an appointment and meeting the minimum registration will be granted a tuition waiver. The source of tuition payment varies based on the type of graduate assistant appointment, whether it be a Research Assistant (RA) or a Teaching Assistant (TA). For TA appointments, state funds cover the tuition, while RA appointments have their tuition covered by grants or other sources. However, students are responsible for covering the associated fees.
Hiring of Research Staff
Research staff can be hired into several types of positions, including research faculty, postdoctoral, and student assistant (OPS). The hiring procedure depends on the title of the position, funding source, and citizenship. The link below provides a checklist of steps and items needed for completing each type of hire.
All noncitizen researchers (except undergraduate OPS) will require RISC clearance prior to hiring. Hiring into a faculty position (such as assistant scientist) involves additional steps: a new faculty request form must be initiated, and the position must be approved by the chair and the college.
Federal law requires that newly hired employee must provide valid work authorization within three days, or the employment must be terminated.
Additional information:
New faculty request
Undergraduate OPS
Postdocs
Leave of Absence
UF offers many types of employee leave. Only a few are mentioned below. A complete listing is on the UF Benefits website.
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
FMLA generally allows eligible employees to take extended, unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. FMLA leave can be continuous, partial, or intermittent. UF employees who take FMLA can receive pay in two kinds of circumstances.
UF Leave website
Leave request
Medical paid family leave – for serious health conditions in the family
Parental paid family leave – for new births, adoptions or fostering
FMLA leave must be initiated by the employee, not the department. Call UF Benefits for details about how to request your medical or parental leave.
Fellowship Leave
Faculty who plan to apply for fellowships that may require absence from campus need to be aware of college and university policies related to leave, FTE, teaching, management of fellowship payments, benefits, and outside activities. Start with the faculty fellowship application, available at the CLAS Research Office:
Sabbatical and Professional Development leave
Application guidelines for these programs are announced each fall by the dean’s office.
Other Extended leave of Absence (or reduced FTE)
Employees may request leave without pay (LwoP) for personal reasons. LwoP requires department and university approval. Employees who wish to request Leave without pay should contact UF Benefits to determine the impact on benefits, and should consult with the department chair and HR to initiate the request process.
Faculty Required Training
Faculty on search committees must have taken the search training within the past two years.
Search Committee Training: In order to access this training, please log in to myUFL. Once logged in to myUFL, navigate to Main Menu > My Self Service > Training and Development > My Training Enrollment > Search by Course Number (enter PVO800).
All faculty with access to student records must be current in FERPA training.
Benefits Information
https://benefits.hr.ufl.edu/my-benefits/
Retirement Information
https://benefits.hr.ufl.edu/retirement/