AAA Solution

Page last updated: February 8, 2021

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AAA Solution Links

AAA Solution

AAA Solution User Guides (UTORid and password required)

What is the AAA Solution?

The AAA Solution is an enterprise-level solution that supports and simplifies the Academic Administrative Appointment (AAA) process. The workflow allows the Provost’s Office and Dean’s Offices to bring forward nominees for specific AAA positions for approval and coordinates the on-lining and off-lining of AAAs in HRIS. With the development of the AAA Solution, the University has transitioned from a manual and time-consuming process to a much more streamlined and intuitive workflow. The end product is the creation of an accessible, consolidated, and authoritative list of all Academic Administrators (Deans, Chairs, Directors) and AAA positions within the University’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS).

What is a AAA?

AAAs are faculty members who are appointed under the Policy on Appointment of Academic Administrators (PAAA) to serve for a specified time in a leadership role within an academic unit. AAAs include:

• Principal of a College or Campus
• Vice-Principal of a College or Campus
• Dean of a Faculty
• Vice or Associate Dean
• Chair of a Department
• Director of an Extra-Departmental Unit A or B
• Graduate Chair of a Graduate Department
• Chief Librarian and a number of senior Librarians

What Does the AAA Solution Do?

The AAA Solution creates a seamless workflow that:

• Tracks AAA nominations from initiation to approval (linking nominations to eligible faculty and academic units)
• Supports the review/approval of appointments
• Supports clarity relative to review/approval status
• Simplifies on-lining of faculty member to positions in HRIS
• Automatically off-lines AAAs at the end of their approved term

Benefits of the AAA Solution

The AAA Solution provides a single interface that simplifies and streamlines the AAA process and ensures data integrity. The solution:

• Creates a single, easily accessible, and authoritative source of data concerning all faculty who serve (or, on a go-forward basis, have served) as AAAs
• Significantly improves the quality of faculty data (by leaving AAAs in academic positions)
• Embeds, for the first time, an accurate list of academic units into HRIS mapped against the HRIS organizational structure, which may be leveraged for other tools including SuccessFactors Recruiting
• Saves significant time relative to on-lining and off-lining of AAAs across all Faculties and VPFAL Office (conservative estimate of 3 person months)
• Provides convenient reports so users can track term details
• Brings clarity to a complex process, allowing each user to perform necessary steps at the right time

Understanding AAA Appointments

The Office of the Vice-President and Provost should be your primary contact concerning the PAAA and the appointment/approval of faculty to AAA roles. Contact provost@utoronto.ca.

Understanding the AAA Solution

The Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty & Academic Life should be your primary contact concerning the AAA solution and the on-lining of approved AAAs. Contact aaatool@utoronto.ca.

Job Aids

We have prepared a series of modular Job Aids to support users while processing appointments through the AAA Solution. Access the guides and support materials.

Reports

The AAA Solution offers four reports. These reports are available to users with access to the AAA Solution. The reports have been designed to assist Faculties throughout the process of appointing an academic administrator (from preparation, to initiation, to on-lining completion, and then AAA term monitoring). In addition, the reports may be used as a resource for a variety of uses in order to support academic planning/administrative processes.

The four reports are:

1. AAA Term End Date Report
2. Candidate Snapshot Report
3. Academic Structure Report
4. On-lining Verification Report

For users with access to the AAA Solution, the reports are available on their main landing page.

Key Concepts

There are a number of essential constructs that all those involved in bringing forth a nomination within the AAA tool should work to familiarize themselves with. These include the following:

The AAA process consists of:

• Stage 1: the 1st, nomination, stage in which a prospective AAA is identified, brought forward, and approved in governance.
• Stage 2: the 2nd, on-lining stage, in which, following approval, the faculty member is on-lined into the correct AAA position.

Faculty members may be appointed to one (single) or more (multiple) AAA roles such as a Chair of an academic unit who may also be the graduate chair of the corresponding graduate unit. In this case, the faculty member holds two or multiple positions.

A person taking on one or more AAA roles may be appointed on an acting or interim basis or as the “regular” appointee. This is material in policy in terms of the way the search is conducted and consequently the appropriate “Path” selected in the Solution.

There are four distinct pathways or workflows within the AAA Solution. The distinction between the pathways lies in policy, and understanding the differences is critical. The following are flow diagrams that highlight the steps and tasks associated with each pathway. As you will see, the most complex pathway is #1, used for the approval and renewal of “regular” AAA Appointments. The following diagrams are a visual representation of the information in the AAA Solution User Guides (UTORid and password required).

Pathway 1: Regular appointments (PDF)

Pathway 2: Acting or Interim appointments (of more than 2 months) (PDF)

Pathway 3: Acting or Interim appointments (of less than 2 months) (PDF)

Pathway 4: Principal of Federated College (PDF)

When a faculty member takes on a AAA role such as Dean, Chair, or Director, they remain a faculty member — normally in the academic unit to which they were originally appointed. In other words, the AAA role is layered on top of their academic appointment. As part of the AAA Solution, we worked to ensure that the way AAA positions are tracked and recorded in the University’s Human Resources Information System (HRIS) is consistent with the experience of the individual faculty member. This diagram shows how relevant data is structured in HRIS (PDF). If you require this information in another format, please contact aaatool@utoronto.ca.

Questions about AAA Solution pathways or data structures? Please contact aaatool@utoronto.ca.

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