[Pols-l] annual evaluation, 2/21 and related

Thu Feb 9 14:44:10 CST 2017

Colleagues, a gentle reminder that your annual report deadline is coming up (2/21).

As part of this process (and the external review process) you should be updating your files in PRO. If you need assistance with that please ask.

I also want to reset our attitudes a bit on the PRO system. We were told that this was not different from what we already do in terms of updating our vitas and the like. But this perspective was wrong (and we could see that). We are clearly being asked to include far more information in the system than we include on our vitas and this is significantly more work for us.

We can still determine what information from our file is shown on our personal webpages by not selecting the web view box on individual entries. But now we are starting to see why they want so much more information than we often have on our vitas.

They have created a beta form of a new web page: http://kansas.academicanalytics.com/  This web page will be available internally and externally and will make use of all PRO data that you choose to make public by selecting web view box on individual entries. Users will search using names and terms.

Additionally, all of the strange information PRO asks for, such as the affiliations of co-authors (KU or elsewhere), student awards, and your student alum accomplishments, will be used to generate specialized reports for our external review, and are being used now by administrators for specialized internal reports.

So yes, PRO is more work for us. The benefit to us comes if we make sure the data is complete and accurate so that all of the ways PRO is being (and will be) used can serve to benefit the department as a whole. Other potential sources of information that the administration uses, such as Academic Analytics, are simply incomplete and do not provide an accurate representation.

And remember, if you do select new items from PRO to appear on the webpage it only updates overnight so those items will not appear until the following day.
Thanks for your attention.
DHM

From: Haider-Markel, Donald Patrick
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 11:11 PM
To: POLS-L <pols-l at lists.ku.edu>
Subject: HNY, news, and AR

Happy New Year to you all.

Some good news. We received two large donations to the departmental general development fund in the past month from alum that received degrees in the early 1960s. I've decided to place these funds in a new endowed account called the Lance F. Johnson Fund for Collaborative Research. This will generate a bit less than $3,000 in spendable funds each year. The model for this fund is based on how we have been using the Thompson funds for collaborative summer research between faculty and graduate students over the past several years. However, the University will not be able to draw out of this account for UG scholarships as they have been doing with the Thompson fund. I hope to be able to draw donations to this new account so if you have ideas please let me know.

Also, the new year means another round of the beloved annual evaluation process. The details are below and the deadline is 2/21. Please feel free to ask me questions and ask the POLS and PRO staff for assistance.

Best wishes for the new year.

DHM

Department of Political Science

Annual Evaluation Requirements and Instructions

            We'll soon begin the process of evaluating faculty as part of the annual evaluation for the year just concluding.  You should use the annual report generated from the PRO system, but you can submit the old departmental form as well.  The instructions are below.  The deadline is February 21, 2017 by 5 p.m. The Advisory Committee will review your file during the spring semester and will make collective assessments of your performance.  Please refer to the departmental bylaws for the specifics of this process.

            University and Departmental policy requires all faculty members to submit an annual report for use by the Advisory Committee for the annual evaluation process.  These evaluations are also used in making merit recommendations to the Dean when merit raises are available.  The report includes the attached form and any supplemental materials you wish to submit. You are reminded that the penalty for not submitting this report is an automatic rating of poor.

General

(1)   You must submit a completed Faculty Annual Report; you can use the traditional form or generate the form out of the PRO system (which has been adapted to include nearly all of the material on the traditional form) into a word processing document. If you generate the form from PRO you would have to add any narrative you would like to include and you may want to add additional detail about student advising and committees.

(2)   Also submit a PDF version of up-to-date electronic copy of your vita (which you can generate in PRO).

(3)   You will need to update your electronic account on PRO either way

(4)   If for whatever reason you cannot submit electronic copies of materials please let the chair know and provide the materials to the chair; if you need assistance with the PRO system please inform the chair.

Submit your materials on the H drive, folder "Annual Review Files" and within that "2017 Annual Review Files" (if a folder with your name has not been created please add one). This is where you should upload your files. Let me know if you have any problems; otherwise you can email your files to me directly.

Teaching

            We employ portfolio evaluation on teaching, so you are welcome to submit syllabi, examinations, and other relevant course materials for the spring and fall semesters (and summer if relevant) of the past calendar year. You are reminded that we employ the following guideline. "In general, there has been too much emphasis on 'overall teaching effectiveness' scores from student feedback. Developing new courses, teaching larger numbers of students, mentoring and advising students - in short, the overall teaching contribution - should be our primary concern." The quantitative scores of teaching effectiveness will be available to the Advisory Committee electronically and you do not need to submit these scores.

Research

            To facilitate assessment of your research you can submit abstracts, letters of acceptance along with a full set of referee comments, and published reviews of your publications.  It is helpful if you include in your dossier the complete manuscripts of work completed, accepted, or published this past calendar year.

            You can add a section on "Intellectual Development" at the end of the research section of the annual report. Here you may describe major undertakings to acquire new skills (e.g., computer technologies, research methods, foreign language, or interdisciplinary understandings) or begin a new research endeavor that has yet to bear papers or publications (e.g., field work).

Service

            Please submit any documents you believe are relevant to supporting the service portion of your annual review form.  This might include letters of thanks, letters of appointment, and the like.

            If you have the understanding that your contribution will be evaluated on some other basis than the normal 40-40-20 weighting of research, teaching, and service, please confirm such understandings with the chair when you submit your annual review materials.

            On a final note, the Advisory Committee uses a rating of 0 to 10 to rate each faculty member on research, teaching, and service; a weighted average (40-40-20) is used to provide the overall rating. The committee is working under instructions to reserve ratings of 9 or 10 only for truly exceptional performance and that ratings of "good" (4-6) should often be the norm and should not be viewed as a negative rating. Any scores of 3 or below are considered marginal or unsatisfactory and would require the chair to take corrective action.

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