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Handbook
Section G
FIVE-YEAR
REVIEWS OF TENURED FACULTY
1.
Purpose
Periodic
review of tenured faculty has value for both the faculty member
and the College. One objective of such reviews is assessment of
teaching, collegiality, service to the College, and quality of mind.
Another, equally important, objective is consideration of professional
development and personal growth. As regards this second objective,
the issues of a review may change with the lengthening of service
of a faculty member and with the person’s age, and may change,
too, as a result of altered conditions and circumstances of his
or her work at the College. The review is carried out by a committee
in consultation with the faulty member under review, and concludes
with the committee’s written report to the individual and
the Academic Dean, who then meet to discuss the report and its issues.
The intent of the review is to be forward looking and the conversation
with the Dean is to help the faculty member as she or he thinks
about the prior five years and looks to his or her professional
development.
While
the schedule of assessments is established by the Academic Dean
and generally follows a five-year cycle, tenured faculty members
may request evaluation at a time better suited to their planning
for sabbatical leaves or undertaking other forms of professional
development. The first review normally occurs five years after the
year of the tenure decision and last review within five years of
retirement. *
2.
Procedure
a.
Within the first few weeks of the year in which the assessment
is to occur, the Academic Dean will initiate the procedure
by contacting the faculty member. The individual then will
meet with the coordinator of five-year reviews who will explain
the procedure and assist the individual in selecting an appropriate
committee, normally of two. The individual will then meet with
the committee to determine how the committee will proceed within
the guidelines below.
(1)
For faculty who have recently received tenure, materials
similar to those of the tenure file may be appropriate. These
consist of a self-evaluation, letters or interviews with
departmental and other colleagues, course evaluations, and
possibly letters from students. The self-evaluation should
emphasize the future, in keeping with the objective of promoting
professional growth and continued vitality, in addition to
serving as a personal assessment and review of the past five
years. The self-evaluation normally is written prior to,
and guides, the work of the committee. There may be occasions
on which it is written after discussion with the committee
or perhaps in response to the committee report.
In
some cases, if the written self-evaluation is an obstacle,
the faculty member and committee may decide that the process
will be expedited and/or enriched by having an oral presentation
of the self-evaluation instead, or even an extended conversation
covering the topics of the review. In either case, written
notes would be helpful for the purposes of the Dean/faculty
member discussion that concludes the process.
(2)
Although the procedure outlined above is suitable for all
faculty, a person in mid or late stages of his or her career
can choose to have the possibility of moving into academic
administration, or acquiring another discipline, or renewing
one’s commitment to research, or planning for retirement.
Because teaching and collegiality are central to the teaching
faculty’s activity at the College, the second and subsequent
five-year reviews will continue to make these matters subject
to review even though the major focus may be on other matters.
b.
The work of the committee will conclude with a final report
submitted by the committee to the individual and to the Academic
Dean. The process will conclude with the individual’s
subsequent conference with the Dean. It is helpful if the faculty
member sends a copy of the self-evaluation to the Academic
Dean when it goes to the committee, because this will help
frame the conversation between the faculty member and Dean.
*
The five-year assessment is not designed to question the
competence of faculty member to hold tenure, and implies
no change in current college policies regarding removal of
tenure, or the College’s adherence to the AAUP Statement
of Principles. In particular, no materials gathered specifically
for use in the assessment procedure can be introduced as
evidence in any proceeding to remove tenure.
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