Opus now allows you to view administrative allocations from the EVC/P and requires that administrative compensation requests be made through Opus as of 2022-2023.
View Administrative Allocations
The Allocations tab shows the amount allocated to each unit for a specific administrative title grouping by the EVC/P. Allocations are in Opus from 2020-2021 onward. Allocation amounts are only editable by APO.
View Requests for Administrative Compensation
Starting in 2022-23 all requests for administrative compensation should be entered in Opus.
We recommend that dean's offices set up a new default view for the Proposal table, showing only those details they need. See the video on how to modify your table layout here: How can I change my table layout?
By default, the table is sorted by Academic Year, Department, and Title. You can filter by any of these columns as well as by Status. The status column tells you where the proposal is in the workflow.
If you can export the proposal table, please note that the comments column only contains the latest comment on the approval. Comments entered at the time of submission are not currently visible in the exported report.
Enter a New Request for Administrative Compensation
Who do you need to enter a request for?
If the appointee will have an administrative title (e.g. Chair/Vice Chair, Assoc/Asst Dean, Director/Assoc Director, etc.), you will need to enter a request even if none of the compensation comes from the EVCP and even if the appointee will only receive non-monetary compensation (e.g. course releases).
If the appointee will not have an administrative title, but will receive monetary administrative compensation (stipends or 9ths), you will need to enter a request. For example, equity advisors, CAP members, etc.
If the appointee will not have an administrative title, and will not receive any monetary compensation (e.g. only receives course releases), you do not need to enter a request.
Please inform APO of any campus level appointments for faculty in your unit. These will need to be entered into Opus by APO.
To enter a new proposal, click the Add Proposal button
Search for a person and enter their information. You will be able to see the selected person's faculty appointments and any actions in progress that might impact salary.
KNOWN ISSUE: You will only be able to search for academics who have appointments in your unit. If you need to create a proposal for someone who does not currently have an appointment (in Opus) in your unit, contact opus help.
As you fill in the form, make sure to click on the tooltips (blue question marks) for more information.
The Type of Appointment field let's APO know if this is a new administrative position or a reappointment and whether the compensation for the person is changing from the previous year. You should also use this field to note if the administrative compensation request is for administrative duties without an administrative appointment (e.g. compensation for someone serving on CAP). In this case choose "N/A: Compensation is for service".
When you use the Unit Search, the results show you School: Division: Department: Area: Specialty. If your unit doesn't have a Division, you'll see "N/A". If you are entering an Associate Dean appointment, you would want to choose the top level unit e.g. "Medicine". If you were entering a chair appointment, you would select the unit that has the department name in it e.g. "Medicine: N/A: Anesthesiology".
The Organization Name field is automatically populated with the name of the selected unit. You can change the Organization name if the administrative duties are for a center or organization affiliated with the selected unit. For example, if you were entering a request for a center director, but the center itself is not a selectable unit in Opus you should select the unit that the center is affiliated with, then update the Organization Name to reflect the name of the Center.
In the Title Code field, search on the name of the title (e.g. "chair") and you'll see the list of relevant title codes. If the faculty member will hold an administrative title, select the correct value. If the faculty member will receive administrative compensation, but will NOT have an administrative title then enter the faculty title here and use the justification to field to explain the reason for compensation.
The Working Title should be as descriptive as possible. For example if the proposal is for a Vice Chair, the Working Title might be "Vice Chair for Graduate Education". For School of Medicine please distinguish Executive Chairs/Vice Chairs using this field.
The Justification field is only necessary when describing administrative duties where no administrative title is being proposed. For example, if you were entering a request for a CAP member you would enter their professorial title code (as there is no administrative title to enter), then under justification you would enter something like "Service on CAP".
The Multiple Administrative Appointments field is used to indicate whether there are multiple compensated administrative appointments that APO needs to take into account when looking at the total compensation. If you think your appointee may hold administrative positions in multiple units, check with the other departments before updating this field.
The Base Salary is not prepopulated. You can reference the existing base salary at the top of the form (under "show details"). If you know there is an already approved salary that is not yet effective, you should enter the new rate. This rate will be used to calculate 9ths. For faculty on the Health Science Compensation Plan, please enter the X+X' rate here. For recalled faculty, enter the salary at their recall percentage.
Use the NSTP field to let APO know that the selected person may participate in NSTP even if their application is not yet approved. If APO needs to check total compensation and the proposal is flagged with NSTP, APO will follow up to get the negotiated salary component.
You may leave the FTE fields with 0 values UNLESS the faculty member is on Recall. If the faculty member is on Recall, enter their recall percentage in the FTE field. If the appointment is partially funded by the EVCP and partially funded by the dean's office, show the breakdown.
In the Stipends and 9ths sections, you can see the total allocation from the EVC/P for the selected unit and year. Enter the stipend and 9ths amounts from the EVC/P, dean's office, and department if applicable. You may also "Add Another Source". If a stipend or 9th was being partially funded by e.g. the OVCR, you would use the Other Source fields to enter it.
Entering the 9ths dollar amount will automatically calculate the number of 9ths. The 9ths rate is automatically calculated from the base salary, but can be adjusted if needed.
Add any relevant comments and SAVE the proposal. The system won't let you formally submit the proposal at this point. You will need to continue to the Proposal Summary page to click the Submit button.
Entering Comments
Please add the numbers for GSR and Research support to the comments. If you are proposing a reappointment, please enter the year of the appointment the appointee is in (e.g. year 3 of 5). For recalled faculty, please enter the salary rate at 100%
Indexed Compensation Level
Once you have entered stipends and 9ths Opus will calculate the totals and compare them with the Indexed Compensation Level (ICL). Salaries over the ICL may need to be approved by UCOP.
For academic appointees with administrative duties, compensation subject to the above thresholds includes administrative salary and/or professorial base salary (including above and off- scale salary), administrative stipends, summer differentials, and administrative 1/9 or 1/12 payments.
Health Sciences Compensation Plan (HSCP) participants are excluded from the thresholds listed since their salaries do not require pre-approval by the Provost and Executive Vice President.
Workflow and Editing Proposals
Once you save a proposal, the status is updated to "In Progress". You can update the Proposal as much as you like while it is In Progress.
When you are ready to submit the proposal, click the edit pencil and then click submit at the bottom of the form. You will not be able to edit the proposal after submitting it.
If there are changes after submission (e.g. revised end dates or amounts), contact APO's admin comp email (apo-admincomp@conet.ucla.edu).
Once a proposal is submitted, APO will receive a notification and start reviewing it, coordinating with the EVC/P and UCOP as needed. If the faculty member has appointments in multiple schools, the other dean's offices will receive a notification as well as APO. The notification will only contain the unit and title - no amounts will be displayed.
On 5/24/22, a proposal for administrative compensation was submitted for Joe Bruin. The compensation is for administrative duties in their role as Department Chair in Art.
If there is an issue with the proposal, APO will send the dean's office a request to "Revise & Resubmit" via Opus. When APO sends the revision request, the proposal will be editable again by dean's offices until they submit the proposal again.
Once APO saves a draft of the final decision, the status will be updated to "Under Review" and the Proposal fields will no longer be editable by APO. When APO completes the final decision, the status is updated to "Completed" and the dean's offices will receive a notification.
On 5/24/22, the request for administrative compensation for Joe Bruin was completed with the following outcome: Approved. The request for compensation was for administrative duties in their role as Department Chair in Art.
Entering a Final Decision for Administrative Compensation
Once APO receives the notification, they can begin reviewing the proposal.
The date of the EVCP decision and UCOP decision (if applicable) should be entered under tracking dates. Under name, the name of the APO reviewer who is entering data on behalf of the EVC/P or UCOP should be entered.
When entering a Final Decision, all of the proposal data can be prepopulated, then edited as needed. Any changes between the proposal and final decision are highlighted. Some fields cannot be edited in the final decision directly and APO may need to contact the dean's office or edit the proposal.
Opus will highlight the total compensation in green if it is under the ICL and in red if it is over the ICL. APO may need to contact the dean's office if NSTP is indicated. If the dean's office has indicated that there are multiple appointments with administrative compensation, APO will need to review all of them before entering a final decision.
