Mar 29, 2024  
Policy Handbook 
    
Policy Handbook
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AA/22/AS/00/AS - Periodic Evaluation of Tenured Faculty Unit Employees

Effective November 16, 2007


Post-Tenure Review

Policies and Procedures for periodic evaluation of tenured faculty unit employees who are not subject to a performance review for promotion.

1. Introduction

“For the purpose of maintaining and improving a tenured faculty unit employee’s effectiveness, tenured faculty unit employees shall be subject to periodic performance evaluations at intervals of no greater than five (5) years.”

The principles guiding post-tenure review (PTR) are these:

1.1  It is an academic peer review process.

1.2  Consistent with the MOU and AAUP guidelines, it must be conducted according to standards that protect academic freedom and the quality of education.

1.3 Consistent with the MOU and AAUP guidelines, it must not be used as grounds for dismissal or other disciplinary sanctions.

1.4 It must be flexible enough to acknowledge different expectations in different disciplines and changing expectations at different stages of a faculty unit member’s career.

1.5  It should engender collaborative dialogue, discussion, and feedback.

1.6  Deliberations and recommendations must be confidential, except that the affected faculty unit employee, appropriate administrator, the President, and the department peer review committee members shall have access to written recommendations.

In a university setting, it is desirable and necessary to foster the self-determination of each academic department and equivalent unit. A department unit is usually the only body on a campus qualified to evaluate the performance of its members. In addition, the total amount of work required to perform post-tenure review (PTR) is significant and so the work must be divided among many groups and individuals. Therefore PTR will be decentralized to the individual departments and colleges, as outlined in the paragraphs below.

Every report resulting from the review shall contain coherent rationales for all findings and conclusions. This includes, but is not limited to, the reports of the departmental post-tenure review committee and the dean. A faculty unit employee who undergoes review will have the opportunity and option to respond orally and in writing to every such report, and to place a copy of any of the written responses into his or her personnel action file (PAF).

The post-tenure review process will in no way abrogate the rights of a faculty unit employee for procedural protection regarding the terms and conditions of employment.

2. Eligibility and Review Intervals

2.1  Faculty unit employees not being considered for promotion are subject to review every five years following the awarding of tenure.

2.2 Tenured faculty unit employees on sabbatical or leave of absence during the scheduled year of review shall undergo post-tenure review upon return to campus.

2.3 Tenured faculty unit employees who are participating in the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP) shall maintain their five-year review cycle.

3. Procedures

3.1 Each academic department and equivalent unit shall elaborate upon the criteria and procedures it wishes to use to evaluate its members. The departmental elaborations shall be in addition to the requirements put forth in this resolution.

Each department shall make and save a written record of its elaborations, give a copy to each of its members, and give a copy to the office of the appropriate dean.

The department shall give notice to all parties to the evaluation of a faculty unit employee as to the nature of all of the evaluation criteria and procedures to be used at least four weeks in advance of the due date of the employee’s report to the post-tenure review committee.

Pertaining to one particular evaluation of one particular faculty unit employee, there shall be no changes made to any of the criteria or procedures after the notice described has been given.

Departments may modify their elaborations as needed provided they disseminate the revised rules and give proper notice in the manner described above. Departments, however, shall be vigilant with regard to providing fair and evenhanded treatment to all their members.

3.2 The tenured faculty unit employee under review shall compose his/her PTR Report. For those with teaching responsibilities, the report shall include student evaluations of teaching performance. The report shall also conform to the department elaborations.

3.3 The faculty unit employee shall submit the post-tenure review report to the departmental post- tenure peer review committee.

3.3.1 The department’s post-tenure peer review committee shall be chosen in accordance with the department elaborations. Only tenured full-time faculty unit employees shall be eligible for membership in the committee. If the department head makes a separate report on the review, s/he may not participate as a member of the committee.

3.4 The departmental post-tenure peer review committee shall review the faculty unit employee’s PTR Report, and draft a PTR committee report according to the criteria and procedures in this document and also in accordance with the department elaborations. The committee’s report shall contain coherent rationales for all findings and conclusions. If the employee has teaching responsibilities, the report shall consider the student evaluations of teaching submitted by the employee. A tenured faculty unit employee who is participating in the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP) shall be evaluated only in the area of teaching unless s/he also chooses to be reviewed in one or more of the other areas specified in the department elaborations.

3.4.1 All faculty unit employees under review shall have an opportunity to work with the departmental committee in a collaborative effort. The tenured faculty unit employee shall be provided a copy of the peer review committee’s summary report. Before it is finalized s/he shall have an opportunity to review it and provide an oral and/or written response.

3.5 The post-tenure peer review committee chair and the dean shall meet with the tenured faculty unit employee for a collaborative discussion of the PTR report.

3.5.1 The dean shall consider the written report of the review committee and the written response(s), if any, of the faculty unit employee. The primary responsibilities of the dean shall be firstly to verify that the peer review has been conducted according to the requirements of the contract and college-wide standards, secondly to verify that the peer review has been fair and evenhanded, and lastly, in the case of a review of a faculty unit member with teaching responsibilities, to determine that an evaluation of teaching has been performed by the peer review committee.

3.5.2 The dean shall draft a written summary report of the dean’s findings. The report shall not make findings on departmental peer-review issues or on other issues that require academic or discipline- specific expertise. The dean’s report shall contain coherent rationales for all findings and conclusions. Except for rare and compelling reasons, the dean’s summary report shall reflect the views of the peer review committee as expressed in the committee’s report.

3.5.3 The faculty unit employee shall have the opportunity to read and make oral and written responses to the dean’s report before the dean’s report is entered into the employee’s personnel action file (PAF).

3.6 A copy of the peer review committee’s summary report and the dean’s summary report shall be placed in the tenured faculty unit employee’s personnel action file (PAF).

3.6.1 The faculty unit employee may choose to add his or her written response to any of the review reports placed in the PAF.

4. Criteria for Evaluation

4.1  In his or her PTR report to the departmental post-tenure peer review committee, the faculty unit member will furnish the items required by the departmental elaborations.

4.2 If the faculty unit employee has teaching responsibilities, the employee’s PTR report shall include student evaluations of teaching performance for the preceding five years. For years that the employee taught full time, there must be a minimum of the two mandated IDEA course evaluations per academic year (or in lieu of that, in case the University requirement shall change, there must be the required number of the required evaluation instrument).

5. PTR Calendar: Spring Semester

Mid February: Notify the following persons as to what criteria and procedures will be used for the review: the tenured faculty unit member to be reviewed, the members of the department post-tenure peer review committee, the dean, other persons charged with placing reports in the member’s PAF in connection with the evaluation.

Mid April: Submission of tenured faculty unit employee’s post-tenure review report to departmental post-tenure peer review committee.

Mid April: Departmental post-tenure peer review committee’s review of faculty member’s post- tenure review report. Consultation with faculty member under review and with departmental colleagues. Collaborative effort between faculty member and peer review committee on the latter’s summary report.

Mid April: Submission of departmental PTR summary report to faculty member.

End April: Submission of faculty member’s written response, if any, to departmental post-tenure peer review committee.

End April: Submission of departmental post-tenure peer review committee’s summary report and faculty member’s written response, if any, to dean.

End April-mid May: Collaborative meetings between faculty members under review, peer review committee chairs, and deans.

Mid May: Submission of dean’s summary report to faculty member.

End May: Submission of faculty member’s written response, if any, to dean.

End May: Placement of peer committee’s and dean’s summary reports in personnel action file (PAF). Also, at faculty member’s option, placement of his/her written responses, if any, in the PAF.

6. Implementation

Because in many departments there is a “backlog” of faculty members eligible for post-tenure review, it will be impossible to review all candidates during the program’s early years and still maintain the integrity of the PTR peer review program. Therefore, each department will be expected to apportion the reviews so that it can catch up within a maximum of five years. The first tenured faculty members to undergo PTR shall be those who have been in rank the longest.

Each year the Office of Academic and Human Resources shall issue the PTR calendar by September 1. Upon receipt of the calendar, each department shall submit to said office the names of those faculty members who are to be reviewed during the spring term of the current academic year.

Review Period: 5 years

Review History: Approved by the Academic Senate on February 27, 2001. The President returned without signing on April 24, 2001. Approved by President Hamid Shirvani on November 16, 2007.

Academic Affairs Division has the primary responsibility for this policy.

Attachment(s): AA/22/AS/00/AS - Periodic Evaluation of Tenured Faculty Unit Employees , AA/22/AS/00/FAC - Footnotes-Post Tenure Review Policy   


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