Faculty Evaluation

Authors: O'Meara, K. & Templeton, L.

This report outlines key principles for equity-minded reform of faculty evaluation policies.

Authors: UMD ADVANCE

This brief summarizes findings from interviews conducted in Fall 2024 with 26 PTK faculty who recently went through the promotion process. Participants were diverse in terms of gender; race/ethnicity, title series, and unit. All participants went through the promotion process prior to changes to the campus promotion guidelines. Complementing the PTK Working Group Report Summary by UMD OFA in 2023, this brief focuses on PTK faculty experiences with promotion and outlines key takeaways and recommendations intended to inform improvements in the promotion process and support systems for PTK faculty.

Authors: Nyunt, G., O'Meara, K., Bach, L., & LaFave, A.

This study examines faculty members' experiences with organizational justice during the tenure process, focusing on those who did not receive or felt they would not receive tenure. The researchers interviewed 22 faculty participants and found that they experienced violations of three forms of organizational justice: distributive, procedural, and interactional. The participants reported that these perceived violations hindered their ability to succeed on the tenure track.

Authors: O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., Culpepper, D., & White-Lewis, D.K.

The report proposes concrete reforms based on principles like transparency, clarity, and accountability. It recommends moving away from over-reliance on student evaluations of teaching and instead using holistic teaching portfolios to mitigate bias. It advocates for a broader, more inclusive definition of scholarship that values various forms of work, such as community-engaged or interdisciplinary projects, and suggests multiple ways to document scholarly impact beyond traditional citation metrics.