ProS Region Weekly CAO Briefing

July 19, 2019
ProS Region Weekly CAO Briefing
July 19, 2019
About this Briefing:

This briefing is designed to codify information that we believe will be most useful to our regional clients. This briefing will be provided to CAOs on a weekly basis as necessary. CAOs will share the information in this briefing more broadly within their school.

Additional information and periodic updates can also be found in the announcements section of the ProS website located at https://pros.berkeley.edu/home. The ProS website provides more detailed information on the services we provide, how to contact your RA, HR or purchasing staff for further assistance, service completion timelines and how to provide feedback on ProS services. Note that the ProS website is still under development and new features and information are added weekly.

Research Administration Update:

Pre-award: The pre-award team is experiencing a spike in pre-award activity. Therefore the response time may be slower than the usual 48 hours. Please remind PIs that it is important to reach out to the pre-award team at least 10 days before the proposal due date to ensure adequate time for processing and necessary approvals.

Post-Award: Summer salary allocations for payment on August 30 (for effort in August, July, June, and/or May), must be submitted prior to 7/24/2019. (https://regionalservices.berkeley.edu/brs- regional-services/research-administration/summer-salary-faculty/summer-salary-deadlines).

Staff Changes: ProS RA 4 Ontonye Amaturo has retired. Her School of Public Health caseload has temporarily been reassigned while we conduct recruitment for an RA 3 or 4 to fill this position. Please refer strong candidates to RA Supervisor Yvette Villicana for consideration.

Human Resources and Academic Personnel Update:

Visiting Scholars: Beginning August 1, 2019, Visiting Scholars and Visiting Student Researchers will be required to pay their University Services Fee upfront, prior to receiving their appointment letter. This change is necessary, as the system that allowed the Visiting Scholar and Postdoc Affairs Office (VSPA) to verify payment of fees was discontinued with the implementation of UCPath.

Although this represents a change, we anticipate that the new process will, in fact, speed up the onboarding process for Visiting Scholars and Student Researchers once they arrive, as appointments will no longer be held up for non-payment of fees.

Should Visiting Scholars and Student Researchers not have sufficient funds to pay their fees up front, the sponsoring unit/faculty member will be asked to pay the fee on the visitor’s behalf, and seek payment from the scholar/researcher once they arrive and can access their funding. Scholars whose appointments are not approved will receive a full refund.

Please note that any applications currently in process before August 1 may be completed using the current process of collecting fees upon onboarding.

The goal is to implement this new process smoothly and efficiently. If you have questions about how this change will impact you, or the Visiting Scholars/Student Researchers that you host, please contact your Berkeley Regional Services (BRS) HR Manager or Regional Director.

Graduate Student Hires Update: ProS HR staff are beginning to reach out to ASE/GSRs who have scheduled on-boarding after 8/8/10 to collect information needed to get the students into the UCPath Center (UCPC) system asap using the new “template first” process. Thank you in advance for helping the ProS team with this information gathering process so that we can ensure that students do not have to wait until October to receive their pay.

UCPath Updates/Changes: This week we were informed by UCPC that the turn-around time once the information has been submitted to UCPC has now increased from the targeted three business days to five business days. Note that ProS HR staff have numerous examples of the process taking between 6-12 days. Therefore if you are hiring a new employee or rehiring an employee who has a break in service, PLEASE give yourself 8-12 business days before the intended start date to complete the on-boarding process so that the employee will have access to key services on (or soon after) the start date.

ProS Staff High-Five Awards: Congratulations to the following staff who were presented with High-Five awards at the ProS Quarterly All-Hands meeting this week: Allison Layton, Tobie Klibansky, Irma Long, Elaina Fernandez-Hutchinson, Jeff Yencheck, Victoria Kuo, and Aza Gevorkian. Thank you to all who wrote to us to nominate a ProS staff member. If you would like to nominate someone, please contact the employee’s supervisor and provide a brief description of why the award is merited. This a one small but significant way that we can show our appreciation and promote the retention of our most valued staff!

Purchasing and Reimbursements Update:

Honorariums: Recently we received numerous honorarium requests without appropriate approvals. To prevent processing delays, please make sure the appropriate approval is obtained and submitted with the requisition. The Controller’s Office guidelines state that the maximum honoraria rate that can be paid to non-University personnel is $10,000. All honoraria of $10,000 or less require the written approval of a Dean, the University Librarian, Vice Provost, Vice-Chancellor or Department Chair. For the approval of honoraria payments generated within a Research Control Unit, Unit Directors reporting directly to the Vice-Chancellor for Research have been delegated authority to approve payments up to

$10,000. Payments above $10,000 require written approval by the Vice-Chancellor for Research prior to the event. Exceptional honoraria paid to non-University personnel in excess of $10,000 will require advance written approval by the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.

Please click here for additional information