Evaluations

Annual Review

How to Complete Your Faculty Annual Review 

Goal

The goal of the Annual Review is to provide an annual opportunity for the faculty member and department chair to review and reflect upon the faculty member’s work, in an effort to support and engender growth. Together, the faculty member and chair will discuss:

• How chairs can best support faculty members in their ongoing work
• How faculty members can best align their talents and efforts with the strategic objectives of Hope College

Details

• The academic calendar review cycle includes summer, fall and spring terms. The cycle begins the day after graduation and goes through the next graduation date.
  • For example, May 4, 2019–May 3, 2020
  • Faculty are encouraged to enter forthcoming activities that are scheduled to occur late in the spring semester, even if they have not yet taken place (for example: presenting at a conference or a publication going to print).
• All full-time faculty will complete an annual review or third-year review each year.
• This process will utilize FAR (Faculty Activity Reporting) data and all known data should be in FAR by mid-March.
• The review document should be brief and not exhaustive; writing it should not be onerous for faculty and chairs to complete.
• Goals should be ambitious; in other words, setting realistic but challenging goals is encouraged.

Review Deadlines

• The annual Faculty Activity Report will include information entered from the Monday after graduation (previous year) to the Sunday of graduation (current year).  
• Faculty member submits their Annual Review form by March 15
• Chair meets with faculty member to discuss review before April 15
• Faculty member confirms they've met with the chair by selecting from the drop-down box in the workflow by April 16
• Chair also confirms meeting and submits the workflow to the dean by April 17
• Dean reviews each annual review and submits to the provost office by May 3 

Merit Pay Guidelines

See Faculty Merit Assessment Indicators 

The listed criteria for merit were developed in consultation with the Deans’ Council and the Professional Interests Committee (PIC). A fourth criterion was added in 2007 that addresses contributions to the overall mission of the college. Some examples are provided below to assist you if you choose to use this area in a merit recommendation. Although still broad, the criteria demonstrate that merit can and often should be awarded for activities other than scholarly works. If you have questions about an individual’s qualifications for merit, please consult with your dean.  

We hope to continue to follow the PIC’s past recommendations for the merit process: merit awards given to approximately one-third of the faculty, allocated proportionally to the divisions based on their total full-time continuing faculty.

Within the Workflow process, department chairpersons will provide their dean with a paragraph which clearly documents the accomplishments of each person being recommended for merit pay. Please be brief and please identify the specific criteria on which your recommendation is being made. Merit implies that the person’s contributions have exceeded the normal expectations for a faculty member in that department/division.

Merit pay can be recommended for:

• Exceptional scholarly contributions (as defined by that department or division) in the last one or two years or because of a long-term consistent contribution to scholarship that has never risen to the highest level in any one year but is still exemplary
• Exceptional contributions to teaching excellence that go beyond the typical classroom excellence, e.g., providing leadership to pedagogical reform, creating courses that impact a broad segment of students (General Education/IDS), receiving national recognition for teaching or similar type activities
• Making an exceptional service contribution, such as reorganization or revision of curricula, either in the major or the core, or similar college service
• Making an exceptional contribution to the mission of the college; examples might include:
  • Success in moving the college toward greater engagement with its global learning goals
  • Active use of pedagogy that integrates faith and learning
  • Publishing papers and making public presentations that focus on the Christian dimension of academic excellence
  • Organizing speakers and/or programs that give particular emphasis to the college’s mission and goals
  • Bringing regional and national recognition to Hope’s mission to be exceptional in academics and faith

Department chairs will prioritize their recommendations for merit (if more than one) and each dean in turn will prioritize the divisional recommendations when they are sent to the Status Committee. The nomination of people across the spectrum of categories is strongly encouraged. Deans are asked to submit to the Status Committee a “balanced” slate of merit nominees that represent each merit category in roughly equal numbers. The Status Committee will make the final determination of merit awards and send recommendations to the president. Note that the Status Committee members will have access to the annual review forms and can ask for review of candidates who either did not make the deans’ lists or did not rank high enough to fall in the 1/3 category. Hopefully, this will prevent someone who is meritorious from being missed in the overall process.  

Recommendations on merit will be made by the dean to the Status Committee; the Status Committee will then send a list of recommendations to the president. If the president disagrees with any of the Status Committee’s recommendations, he will meet with the committee and discuss his concerns. Ultimately, the final decision rests with the president.

Merit Deadlines

• The annual Faculty Activity Report will include information entered from the Monday after graduation (previous year) to the Sunday of graduation (current year).  
• Faculty member submits their merit form or opts out of consideration in Workflow by April 12 
• Chair ranks and submits recommendations to the dean by April 17
• Merit decisions are made by the deans in early May
• Merit decisions are reflected on the contracts mailed out on in May 
• Faculty may appeal the merit decision before August 1