Campus Procedures
The Campus Dean will call a meeting of all tenured and tenure-track Faculty to discuss the procedure for submission of dossiers and timelines as well as consultation on the amount of money to separate each tier as defined in the following procedure. One-third (1/3) of the merit award pool will be used to support awards in research/creative activity, one-third (1/3) of the merit award pool will be used to support awards in teaching, and one-third (1/3) of the merit award pool will be used to support awards in service. Eligible Faculty wishing to be considered for Merit Awards shall submit a brief dossier describing the basis for such awards to the Merit Committee. A Faculty member may apply for merit in all three categories, in only two of the categories, or in only one category. The Merit Committee will consist of all tenured and tenure-track faculty who have submitted a dossier for merit. However, Faculty members that do not apply for merit in a particular category will not rank the applicants in that category. Prior to the submission of dossiers, the Faculty Chair will call a meeting of all tenured and tenure-track Faculty to review the criteria for dossier evaluations. The dossier is limited to five (5) pages (one (1) printed side per page, 10-point font or larger) per section and must be submitted according to the timelines recommended by the Office of the Provost.
The Merit Committee considers the submitted materials and makes recommendations to the Dean. Each portfolio is scored using a 1 - 5 scale for each category of assessment as defined in the tenure-track Collective Bargaining Agreement. A score of one (1) constitutes the recognition that a candidate is performing according to his/her contractual obligations; whereas, a score of five (5) represents a performance well-above the campus expectations. An unsigned score sheet from each member of the Merit Committee scoring each applicant shall be submitted to the Faculty Chair in a sealed and signed envelope. A ballot must have a rating for every candidate to be valid. Each candidate must give himself/herself and his/her spouse or significant other, if appropriate, a ranking of five (5) which will be subtracted later. The Faculty Chair will select three (3) members of the Merit Committee, in consultation with the Merit Committee, to consist of the committee responsible for opening and tallying the score sheets. This committee must maintain confidentiality of all procedures. In order to maintain confidentiality, envelopes containing the ballots are first checked for signatures and printed names on the front of the envelope. Any envelope not signed remains unopened and is not included in the tally. Next, the envelopes are placed face down, shuffled, opened, and ballots are separated from the envelopes. The ballots are then shuffled once more before separating the individual ballots according to the categories of Teaching, Service/Citizenship, and Research/Creative Activity. Finally, before tallying the scores, each group of ballots is shuffled one final time. The scores are then entered into an Excel file with one member of the group reading the scores, another member entering the data into Excel, and the final member watching the screen for accuracy. Immediately after entering the scores for each ballot, the numbers are double checked by one member reading the scores entered into Excel while the other two members review the scores on the ballot.
The committee then begins the task of assigning monetary amounts for each candidate in each category. To accomplish this each of the three categories is averaged by the Excel spreadsheet from the ballots that are submitted after removing a score of 5 if the candidate submitted a ballot. An additional score of 5 will be removed if the candidate’s spouse or significant other submitted a ballot. Note that the spreadsheet formula for the average for each candidate needs to be altered for those submitting ballots and those not submitting ballots.
To determine the monetary amounts, the Teaching averages are listed from highest to lowest in one list, the University Service averages are listed from highest to lowest in a second list, and the Research/Creative Activity averages are listed from highest to lowest in a third list. The committee looks for obvious breaks in the averages to determine the different tiers. A linear equation is used to determine the monetary amount for the candidates in each tier based on the amount of money available for each award category and the amount of money used to separate each tier.
The Faculty Council Chair will report the results of the scoring along with the initial recommendation of awards to the Campus Dean for processing as described in the tenure-track Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Campus Dean will notify each candidate of their preliminary determinations as well as the preliminary determinations for all Faculty members who applied. If a candidate is dissatisfied with his/her award, the candidate may appeal the case to the Dean who will transmit the request to the Merit Committee. The Merit Committee then reconsiders the candidate’s merit application and new ballots are distributed for evaluation. After all appeals have been determined, any money set aside for appeals will be distributed proportionately to those who were awarded merit. All envelopes, ballots, and Excel spreadsheets will be retained by the Faculty Chair until completion of the appeals process and then destroyed according to the University’s records retention policies.