Faculty

As Faculty Candidate, you can use the top navigation bar to jump between the two main areas:

1. Achievements: Enter and manage your professional data.

2. Cases: Access current reviews and historical archives to cases you have access to. The Cases in Progress page lists your current active cases. In the "Assignment" column you can tell who currently is responsible for taking action on the Case. The Case Archive page lists your archived cases.

Reviews & Documents

• Candidate Summary: This is a "snapshot" of your achievements filtered by your specific review period.

• Uploading Files: You can upload documents in any format (Word, images, etc.). For maximum security and compatibility, we strongly recommend saving all uploads as PDFs, with the only exception being the publications list (preferred in Word format).

Managing Your Achievements

The Achievements section captures the data normally found in a CV. It is recommended to update your record on an ongoing basis to ensure accuracy for future reviews.

Entering New Records

• Getting Started: Familiarize yourself with the categories and sub-categories first. If an activity fits in multiple places, choose the most logical one—do not list an activity more than once. Ensure that activity details match if they can be found in multiple places of a review case.

• Automated Data: To save you time, the sections Courses Taught, Graduate Student Mentoring, and Grants are pre-populated from campus systems. Should there be inaccuracies, these need to be corrected. 

• Drafts vs. Final: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required to save a record. If you are missing information but want to save your progress, use "Save as Draft." Note: Draft records will not appear in your CV or Candidate Summary.

• Optional fields: These fields are intended to provide flexibility across disciplines. Not all fields may be relevant to your research discipline. If you choose to complete these fields, ensure completeness and accuracy.

Refining Your Display

At the bottom of most pages, you can toggle whether a record should appear in your Candidate Summary (RS) or your CV

• Comments: Text in "Comment" boxes will appear in your summary.

• Notes: "Notes" boxes are for your personal use only and are never shared in review files.

Updating & Editing Achievements

Your achievements list displays three status indicators under the "Appears In" column: RS (Candidate Summary), CV, or Draft. You can click Edit or Delete at any time to revise your history. A more detailed guide on review materials can be found on the Berkeley Manual for Academic Personnel (BMAP) website

Achievements Section Overview

1. Personal Profile 

The Personal Profile includes the following:

• Contact Information

• Relatives Employed by UC

• Education

• Employment History

This section establishes your educational and professional background, and identifies any near relatives who are employed by the UC system. It is important for the university to know of any near relatives (including domestic partners) who are presently employed at any campus of the University of California, to ensure compliance with policy APM 520-Employment of Near RelativesThis policy requires disclosure of such relationships, primarily as it affects the academic personnel appointment and review process. Similar policies exist for the employment of near relatives in staff positions and for student supervision.

In the Department/Institution field, include both the department or professional school, as well as the campus. You may add multiple records, as necessary. List both current and former relationships (as defined by the policy) in order to avoid conflicts in the review process.

2. Teaching & Mentoring

This section establishes your core instructional and mentorship record.

Courses Taught: 

• Data is automatically imported from the CSIR system. Please review for accuracy. While official data cannot be edited, you can use the "Actual % Taught" or "General Comments" fields to address discrepancies. For missing courses, summarize the teaching record as you would like it to be presented to campus reviewers and attach it as part of your Self Statement. The general comments field may also be used to highlight any particular contributions to a course (i.e., newly developed/ significantly revised course, introduction of a technology in the course). For duplicate courses only, de-select the “include in Candidate Summary” option.

• Cross-listed courses are displayed in a single record; the enrollment figure is a sum of all the courses. Independent study courses are displayed only once, with the enrollment summed.

• Since July 1, 2021, all student narrative comments submitted on course evaluations must be uploaded into APBears.

• Courses taught at other institutions, including workshops and seminars, should be added under Professional Activities.

Leaves: 

• Document all sabbaticals or teaching releases (e.g., Course Buyout, Leave, teaching release for administrative duties) so reviewers understand gaps in instructional data. Include a sabbatical report, if the review period included a period of sabbatical leave.

• The semester(s) of teaching release and reason(s) will be included in the teaching portion of the Candidate Summary with an appropriate annotation of the reason.

• If the department operates a point system and there is no teaching due to an excess of points, select “Course Buyout.” For those with a Miller Professorship or who are an HHMI Faculty Investigator, select "Research Leave."

Mentoring:

• Tracks undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral mentoring. Note that graduate committee data is pulled daily from the Graduate Division database; verify this for accuracy and ensure that all students and postdoctoral scholars (both at Berkeley and external) are listed. This data includes degrees completed and participation on oral exams. If you engaged in informal mentoring, you may describe that in your self-statement. If the mentored student is receiving course credit for the activity, such as URAP, there is no need to enter a mentoring record, these students are already reflected in the Courses taught section.

3. Including Review Documents

These files provide the narrative context for your review.

• Self & Diversity Statements: Critical 3–10 page narratives. Use these to explain the "why" behind your work and your impact on campus equity. Avoid simple lists; focus on your most significant achievements and provide context. The self-statement is your opportunity to draw the reviewer's attention to any particular accomplishments and your most significant work. These statements are optional, except for cases in which the Assistant Professor First Merit Checklist is used. 

• Non-Confidential Documents: These may include syllabi, book contracts, reviewers’ comments, etc. The documents will be included if the date of the document falls within the Review Period of the action.

• Fairness Safeguard: You have the right to review your case materials, the ad hoc report (if one is included in the case) and the departmental recommendation and provide comments before they move to the next level of review. At each respective safeguard step, you will be notified via email. By routing the case to the next step, you are certifying that you have been given the opportunity to review and respond do material, as defined by policy.

• CV: Upload your full bibliography. If you list information both in the Achievements database and the CV, ensure that the information matches. 

• Naming conventions: use the Effective Date for the case in which you want the document to appear when entering the date in Achievements (e.g., a publication list with a 7/1/2027 date will appear in a review effective 7/1/2027)

4. Research and Creative Activities

Document your scholarly output and the funding that supports it.

• Publications list: Provide an up-to-date and categorized bibliography (i.e., refereed journal articles, refereed conference proceedings, books/ book chapters, etc), which clearly shows new publications since the last review and since the last career review. You may include hyperlinks to the respective publication for each record, should you wish to.

• Interests: Keywords that describe your current research focus. Research Interests can be changed at any time, and should reflect your current Research Interests. If there is a need to add, modify, or delete key words, simply use the edit function.

• Grants: Research funding is pulled from the Sponsored Projects Office’s (SPO) COEUS database. You can manually add grants not administered by SPO or edit proposals to ensure they appear correctly in your Review Summary. Pending proposals should be edited and have dates added in order to be captured in the Review Summary (use the same date for the Project Start and End Dates). If you wish to show any Not Funded grants in your Review Summary, these will need dates added as well. Only grants that have been manually added can be deleted. To delete an added record, click on the Menu link to the left of the grant record and select "delete." For records maintained by SPO that you do not wish to include, click "No" next to "Include in RS." Please contact RAC Information Systems Support (phoebe-help@lists.berkeley.edu) if you see any SPO data needing correction.

• Gifts: financial support you have received to support research or teaching activities.

• Patents: Track the lifecycle of inventions. As a patent changes status, i.e., from Disclosure to Application, to Issuance, use the edit function for the particular record. Note that patents can only be credited when awarded, not at the time of filing. Dates, the UC case number and the Patent number are available from the Office of Technology Licensing.

• Creative Activities: This section captures data regarding creative activities. It would normally be used in the fine arts, but can also be used to capture projects or non-traditional activities, such as web design. You can upload supporting documents or link to a website for each creative work. If you link to an external website or file storage, ensure that reviewers may access that page.

5. Professional Activities and Service

This section highlights your contributions beyond your record of research and teaching.

• Honors & Awards: This section captures data for honors and awards, which might include named awards, endowed chairs, honorary degrees, or election to an Academy or professional society. 

• Professional Activities: Includes service you provided to the profession, such as giving lectures, serving in editorial or reviewer roles, and consulting. If you taught at another institution or gave a keynote, list it here. If you upload a CV which includes all your professional activities, there's no need to duplicate this information in the Achievements database.

• University Service: Categorize by Department, College, Senate, or System-wide roles and update start and end dates for each role. High-intensity and/or high-impact service (e.g., heavy committee workloads) should be detailed in your self statement. In the Activity Description box, briefly describe your service by stating the name of the committee, service, or activity and providing any comments you feel would be beneficial to reviewers (e.g. Graduate Admissions Committee, reviewed 200 applications and participated in a two-day recruitment visit of top 20 candidates).

• Public Service: Document work for the public community, state or federal government that utilizes your expertise as a scholar.

• Service contributions that promote diversity and equal opportunity may be noted as such.

Initiating the Case

• Case Creation: Once you have finished entering your data into the Achievements database, notify your Departmental Analyst. They will perform an initial check for accuracy and completeness before starting your case and routing it to you.
• Notification: You will receive an automated email once the case materials are ready for your review. It is important that you review and sign off on your candidate materials before established campus deadlines in order for your case to receive an on-time tag.

Accessing Your Case

• Logging In: Access the system at APBears using your CalNet ID.
• Navigating to Cases: Click the "Cases" button in the top navigation bar to see your active reviews. Click "View" in the left column to open a specific case.

Understanding the Case Interface

When you open a case, you will see a Case Header displaying the effective date, review period, and a Review Progress bar showing the current phase of the review. You will navigate through three primary tabs:

• Candidate Summary: A compilation of your achievements, including imported data for Courses Taught, Graduate Student Mentoring, and Grants. Documents like your CV and Self-Statement are located in the Review Documents section at the bottom of this tab.
• Recommendation Overview: Displays documents generated at the departmental level, such as the departmental recommendation, ad hoc reports, and salary recommendations.
• Routing Log: Provides a chronological history of all actions taken on the case, including dates and personnel involved.

Reviewing and Correcting Data

It is your responsibility to ensure the Candidate Summary is accurate.

• Making Corrections: If you find errors, you must first update the information in your Achievements section.
• Refreshing the Case: After making updates, use the routing options under the Case Overview tab to return the case to the Departmental Analyst to "Refresh" the summary page. This will import the most recent information into your review case.
• Final Approval: Once satisfied, use the routing button in the header to approve the summary. This action certifies your Fairness Safeguard rights and locks the summary from further revisions.

Responding to Review Materials

Throughout the process, you will have opportunities to review and respond to confidential and departmental materials:

• Confidential Materials: If a departmental ad hoc committee and/or external letters are used, you will be notified when the redacted materials are available.
• Departmental Recommendation: After the faculty meeting and vote, you will receive notification to review the formal departmental recommendation letter. You again have five working days (seven calendar days) to upload a response.

Note: Once you submit your final response to the departmental recommendation, you can no longer add documents to the file, though you will maintain viewing access to the departmental-level materials throughout the remainder of the campus review. You may request access to entire non-confidential file material when the review is complete, or if there is a preliminary negative assessment of your tenure case.