Faculty Assessment

This Week’s Big Issue

How are SPEA Bloomington full-time faculty members assessed and held accountable for their annual job performance? These are questions I frequently receive from students and staff (as well as some relatively new faculty members). These questions sometimes accompany misconceptions that faculty members do not face rigorous annual reviews and assessments.

The process for reviewing full-time SPEA Bloomington faculty starts with the annual faculty review. Each faculty member is required to submit a detailed annual report on their activities and performance in three areas: Research, teaching and service. These reports are reviewed by a Personnel Committee (a group of full-time faculty appointed by the Dean) and are supplemented by reports from SPEA’s four program directors on the performance of each faculty member. Program directors use student course evaluations, among sources of information on classroom performance, to shape their input on individual faculty performance. The Personnel Committee reviews these documents and uses them to write a report on the performance of the faculty member in the prior year. A faculty member is scored in each of the three areas on the following scale: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, and Unsatisfactory. The Personnel Committee approves these reports and submits them to the Dean’s Office. The Personnel Committee reports are passed back to individual faculty members and each faculty member has an opportunity to seek corrections. If a factual error has been made in the final draft report, then a correction is made. Otherwise, the reports are finalized and become a part of the faculty member’s personnel file. All untenured faculty are required to meet face-to-face with the Dean’s Office to discuss their annual performance. Tenured faculty are given the opportunity to meet with the Dean’s Office to discuss their assessment. This assessment process of faculty performance drives decisions on compensation.

The annual review process is an essential part of faculty development and is linked to our faculty mentoring program. Junior faculty members are matched with senior faculty mentors. Faculty mentors work with their colleagues to address areas that have been identified as weaknesses in their annual faculty reviews, while providing support and guidance on ways to strengthen scholarly activity, improve pedagogical methods, and identify high-impact service activities.

The annual review process in SPEA is rigorous and comprehensive. The School spends considerable time and effort to make sure we are rewarding those colleagues with outstanding accomplishments in research, teaching and service, while holding faculty members accountable for not performing as expected.

What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?

The School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) will be celebrating National Peace Corps Week from February 28th to March 4th, with a special emphasis on Peace Corps’ 50th Anniversary. In collaboration with the Chicago Regional Office for Peace Corps, SPEA will be hosting a week-long series of information sessions, class talks, and networking possibilities. The week will culminate with a great event - International Night - which features displays, food, performances and national costumes from representatives from around the world in SPEA’s master’s student community. International Night was attended by approximately 200 people including students, faculty, staff and community members last year. This year, for the 50 Year Anniversary, a special two-hour long event will be held at the Indiana Memorial Union-University Club on Thursday, March 3rd with the intent of attracting a University-wide audience and showcasing SPEA's large and valued international community. SPEA’s Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) serve as a major organizer in cooperation with SPEA’s diverse international student population to make the initiative one of SPEA’s largest student-driven events.

In addition, SPEA's International Public Affairs Association will hold its 4th Annual Spring Conference on March 25, 2011, at IU Bloomington. This is a student-organized conference held each spring that allows students to share and discuss individual research with colleagues not only from SPEA, but from graduate programs across IU and the state of Indiana. This year's theme is "Global Problems, Sustainable Solutions: Creating Policy for a Rapidly Changing World." Panelists will explore areas including environmental sustainability, foreign aid and economic development, international law, marginalized communities, and public administration. Faculty and students are encouraged to attend and may register for free by emailing ipaa@indiana.edu. More information about the conference will be available soon at http://ipaa.tumblr.com//.

SPEA’s Big Number

This week’s big (or low) number for SPEA Bloomington is the percentage of net operating income from Indiana state appropriations: 20.6%. This is the third lowest percentage of any unit at IU. The business school receives 12.9% of their net income from state appropriations and the medical sciences program receives 17.9% of their net income from state appropriations. The school of informatics is the most dependent on state appropriations, receiving 61.1% of their net income from state appropriations.

Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington

Please join me in congratulating IUB SPEA Assistant Professor Joe Shaw on his recent co-authored article in Science. You can learn more about this research project at http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/research/shaw_crustacean.shtml. Additional information on the Daphnia Genomics Consortium projects can be found at http://daphnia.cgb.indiana.edu/. According to the IU media office, “no IU science news item in the last 10 years has received more international coverage than did [this] Science paper.”