INDEX

Introduction
Table of Contents

Policies in Process

Preliminaries

Policies

1. Legal Authority and Governance

2. University-wide

3. Presidential Area

4. Academic Affairs

5. Business Affairs

6. Student Life

7. University Advancement

8. Administrative Services

Evaluation of Faculty Members

Policy Statement

Since the University is responsible for maintaining high standards of performance in a wide variety of fields, it is essential that the faculty be composed of men and women of high personal and professional qualifications.

The rationale of evaluation procedures is to encourage and commend the faculty, to bring about improvement in the quality of performance, to recognize the contributions of the individual member, and thus to promote the excellence of the University. In addition, this assessment serves as a basis for decisions on remuneration, promotion, and retention.

At the end of each calendar year, faculty members are required to submit to the appropriate dean or director a report of their faculty activities in the areas of teaching/librarianship, research, and service. While teaching or librarianship is considered a primary function of the faculty, any sustained evaluation will focus on the three faculty functions as expressed in The Teaching Responsibility or The Librarianship Responsibility.

Teaching. Minimal qualifications for appointment or promotion are character and the ability to teach, emotional maturity, and personal security. Some of the elements to be evaluated are experience; knowledge of subject matter; the capacity to organize a course in relationship to a sequence and to an area of knowledge; the ability to evaluate student performance, to formulate assignments, and to construct and administer tests; skill in presentation; interest in students; ability to stimulate youthful minds; capacity for cooperation; and an enthusiastic devotion to teaching. The responsibility of the teacher as a guide and friend properly extends beyond the walls of the classroom into other phases of the life of the student as a member of the University community. It also involves the duty of initiating and improving educational methods both within and outside the department.

Librarianship. Minimal qualifications for appointment or promotion are character and the ability to perform professional library services, emotional maturity and personal security. Some of the elements to be evaluated are experience, knowledge of one's area(s) of responsibility in the library, the capacity to organize relevant resources for a subject area, the ability to evaluate the information and scholarship needs of the Marywood University Community as well as develop and provide access to information resources and services, skill in presentation, interest in students, ability to stimulate youthful minds, capacity for cooperation, and an enthusiastic devotion to education and the library profession. The responsibility of the librarian as a guide and friend properly extends beyond the walls of the classroom or library into other phases of the life of the student as a member of the University Community. It also involves the duty of initiating and improving informational and educational methods and services both within and outside the library.

Scholarship and Creativity. All members of the faculty must be persons of scholarly ability and attainments. Their qualifications are to be evaluated on the quality of their published and other creative work, the range and variety of their intellectual interests, their success in training students in scholarly methods, and their participation and leadership in professional associations and in the editing of professional journals. Attainment may be in the realm of scientific investigation, in the realm of constructive contributions, or in the realm of the creative arts.

Service. The scope of the University's activities makes it appropriate for members of the staff to engage in many activities outside of the fields of teaching/librarianship and research. These may include participation in committee work and other administrative tasks, counseling, clinical duties, and special training programs. The University also expects many of its faculty members to render extramural services to schools, to industry, to local, state and national agencies, and to the public at large.

Faculty contributions in each of these areas must be assessed as objectively as possible. In order to facilitate the process, and to assess the whole record of the faculty member, the University utilizes a variety of means in addition to the Faculty Activities Report, including

Self Evaluation. The best motivation to continued improvement lies in accurate self-appraisal. Faculty members are encouraged to utilize self-evaluation as a tool for professional growth. They may wish to confer with the chairperson or a fellow teacher about this evaluation, in order to improve areas of deficiency.

Peer Evaluation. Objective judgments of peers regarding the quality of teaching/librarianship, research, or service are an important source of evaluative data.

Student Evaluation. The University recognizes the value and limitations of student appraisals of faculty members. It makes use of objective questionnaires to elicit student judgments on a number of facets of instruction on the campus as a whole and in regard to individual teachers.

At the end of each academic year, the department chairperson or appropriate director will conduct an evaluation of those faculty members serving on annual contracts in order to determine what progress has been made in meeting the conditions for promotion and tenure. The faculty member will be expected to submit a self-evaluation analysis to aid the department chairperson or director. Such data as relate to annual evaluation will become a part of the faculty member's permanent file.

Related Policies and Committees

Policy - Qualifications for Appointment to Rank
Policy - Promotion of Faculty Members
Policy - Tenure
Policy - Professional Ethics
Policy - Teaching Responsibility
Policy - Librarianship Responsibility
Policy - Core Responsibilities of Faculty

History of the Policy

07/01/89 - Reaffirmed with publication of Faculty Manual
04/17/04 - Revision approved by the President of the University as recommended by the Policy Committee of the University to include faculty librarians