A new task force exploring faculty evaluation sent out a pilot form to all University of Idaho college deans last week. The task force is made up of members from the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Provost”s Office and Faculty Senate leadership.
In previous semesters, supervisors would rate the faculty in their given units on a scale from one to five. Faculty Senate Chair Randall Teal said the most substantial change to the new form is that it moves away from this numerical approach, and would instead focus on written comments about the faculty member”s strengths and weaknesses.
“The main change is to go from a numeric system to a narrative system, with the intent of having it be more focused on personal growth,” Teal said.
The proposed form sent to the deans last week was intended as a trial run, and Teal said the task force is still seeking feedback. Teal said he has heard both positive and negative reactions from faculty. He said most of the negative comments had to do with the new form being released at a time when many colleges have already started their faculty evaluation process and can”t utilize the pilot form.
“But it”s a university,” Teal said. “It”s this time or no time.”
At the Faculty Senate meeting Jan. 19, members discussed the new form with mixed reactions. Multiple senators said they felt the switch from a numerical-based evaluation to a narrative-based one was an improvement that could increase faculty morale, but Sen. Patrick Hrdlicka of the College of Science was concerned that the new form would be too subjective. He said it could lead to faculty receiving poor evaluations because their supervisor was in a bad mood when they completed the form.
UI Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek said the new focus on narrative evaluation would provide more substantial discussions and may lead to some tough love that would ultimately help faculty improve.
The current numerical system is too focused on numbers, Teal said. He said many faculty members directly correlate the evaluations with raises when they should promote discussions on how to improve.
The numerical scale would distract some supervisors from giving honest evaluations, Teal said. For example, if a supervisor noticed that they were giving a lot of high ratings they might give some lower ratings to deserving faculty.
“That doesn”t do much for morale,” Teal said.
A numeric system is also problematic because the interpretations for the ratings differed throughout the university”s colleges, Teal said. Some colleges would rate their faculty higher than another based on the same criteria.
“It takes the focus off of the holistic individual and turns them into numbers,” Teal said.
Teal said the task force hopes to make edits based on the feedback they receive and have Faculty Senate vote on the new form within the current semester.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer