Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System (APARS)

The Office of the Executive Vice President and University Provost in partnership with Enterprise Technology and the Academic Enterprise implemented three products in the ASU Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System (APARS).

APARS is a “one-stop shopping” experience for academic personnel processes that leverages shared resources and improves service delivery, consistency and reporting for academic personnel, administrators and staff.

What is an Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System (APARS)?

The Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System (APARS) helps institutions maintain data integrity and provides a centralized product for managing academic personnel data and processes in a secure system.

Recruitment (Faculty Search): This product supports a critical component of the hiring process - faculty collaboration in the hiring decision - addressing the specific requirements of committee work with conversation, rating, and reviewing tools.
Curriculum Vitae Builder and Annual Activity Reporting (ASU Vita): This product collects annual activity reporting and provides a curriculum vitae builder. ASU Vita leverages data to document the university’s impact, and avoids excessive effort gathering curricula vitae for accreditation and program reviews.
Review, Promotion and Tenure (RPT): This product streamlines the review process for academic personnel actions, providing an easily navigable experience for candidates, external reviewers and institutional committees.

ASU policy and established processes remain in effect for all academic personnel processes, whether or not they are conducted within the Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System.

Benefits of APARS for Academic Personnel

The Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System (APARS) streamlines review processes, and offers academic personnel a central point of contact for submitting activities for personnel processes, e.g., P&T or annual evaluation. The APARS products support the work of unit administrators and review committees, providing a single electronic system to conduct reviews. APARS also supports unit and college accreditation reporting, saving staff and faculty time duplicating work in multiple systems.

The APARS products are more secure than the creation and distribution of paper forms or the use of unsecured storage locations, e.g., Google Drive or Dropbox, for managing private information and are more sustainable than paper processes. Faculty Search provides a central, secure location for managing confidential hiring information. Faculty can auto-format biosketches for funding applications, and find colleagues with specific expertise for potential collaborations in ASU Vita. The Review, Promotion, Tenure (RPT) product provides additional benefits for faculty by ensuring fair and consistent communications about review and evaluation expectations.

As ASU has expanded, many processes have become paper-intensive, including accreditation and academic reporting, which are time-consuming, inefficient and insecure. The old processes consume valuable resources that can be applied elsewhere.

People

Academic Personnel Advisors

An advisory committee comprised of academic personnel from multiple disciplines guided the implementation team during the configuration and customization of the ASU Vita product. Thank you to the following personnel for contributing their expertise and time:

Alexander Halavais, Associate Professor, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Studies
Allison Leaming Malecki, Associate Librarian, ASU Library
Andrew Maynard, Associate Director for Faculty & Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Bryan Henderson, Assistant Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Carol Johnston, Assoc Dean & Professor, College of Health Solutions
Carol Myers, Business Operations Manager, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, W. P. Carey School of Business
Caroline Harrison, Associate Instructional Professional, School of Sustainability
Chandra Crudup, Lecturer, School of Social Work, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Chengan Yuan, Assistant Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Christine Buzinde, School Director & Assoc Professor, School of Community Resources & Development, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Colleen Cordes, Assistant Dean & Clinical Professor, College of Health Solutions
Cynthia Lietz, Vice Dean & Professor, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Daniel McCarville, Professor of Practice; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
David Becerra, Associate Director & Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
David Coon, Associate Dean & Professor, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation
David Guston, School Director & Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Donald Siegel, Foundation Professor & Director, School of Public Affairs, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Duku Akua Anokye, Associate Professor; School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies; New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Studies
Eugene Judson, Associate Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Forrest Solis, Associate Director and Associate Professor, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Francisco Solis, Associate Professor, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Studies
Frank Serafini, Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Hank Fradella, Professor and Associate Director of the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Hao Yan, Assistant Professor; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
James Herbert Williams, Director & Arizona Centennial Professor, School of Social Work, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Jon Gould, Foundation Professor and Director of the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Juliet Barnett, Associate Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Katherine Kenny, Associate Dean & Clinical Professor, Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation
Kevin Corley, Professor, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, W. P. Carey School of Business
Kurt VanLehn, Professor; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Margaretha Bentley, Associate Director and Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Public Affairs, Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Mary Teagarden, Associate Dean - Faculty & Administration, Professor of Global Strategy & Editor, Thunderbird International Business Review, Thunderbird School of Global Management
Melanie Bertrand, Lincoln Fellow, Lincoln Center Applied Ethics, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Mildred Boveda, Assistant Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Sandeep Gupta, School Dir (ACD) and Professor; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Sherman Dorn, Director, Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation; Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Sherry Xuerong Feng, Lecturer; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Srividya Bansal, Associate Professor; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Teresa Foulger, Associate Professor, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Yi Isabel Zheng, Assistant Professor, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Yinong Chen, Principal Lecturer; School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering; Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Governance Group

The Academic Personnel Actions Reporting System (APARS) Governance Group is advisory to the Vice Provost for Academic Personnel, and includes academic personnel and professional staff representing the diversity of academic and research disciplines of the university. The APARS Governance Group will advise on issues including but not limited to:

Access or use of APARS data
Service alignment with university goals and mission
Support of university initiatives

Implementation Team

The implementation team is comprised of support staff from the Academic Enterprise, the Office of the Executive Vice President and University Provost, and Enterprise Technology, and is responsible for piloting and customizing APARS.

Timeline

Each product will be implemented in coordination with college units in a rolling, multi-phase approach. Schedule is subject to change.

Faculty Search: Launched July 1, 2019
ASU Vita: Launched Oct. 1, 2020
Review, Promotion and Tenure: Phased Implementation 2021-2025

Case Studies

Faculty Search Case Study: University of Notre Dame
Faculty Annual Activity Reporting Case Study: University of Arizona
Faculty Review, Promotion and Tenure Case Study: San Diego State University