The Academic Leader's Handbook: A Resource Collection for College Administrators by Magna Publications Incorporated

Author:Magna Publications Incorporated [Magna Publications Incorporated]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magna Publications, Incorporated
Published: 2017-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

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Reprinted from Academic Leader , March 2014

The Danger of Being Too Nice: Avoiding Legal Pitfalls in Faculty Evaluation

By Jon Dalager, PhD, JD

Admittedly, one of the hardest tasks performed by a dean or department chair (evaluator) is to evaluate the faculty. On the one hand, as an academic and a former faculty member, the evaluator is aware of the measurement criteria in teaching, scholarship, and service. On the other hand, as a former faculty member, the evaluator will understand the struggle to teach more students while performing an increasing number of service activities, yet still maintaining a cutting-edge research agenda, not to mention having a normal family life. But here is where the danger lies. The evaluator must not be too nice and allow the tenure-track faculty member (candidate) to think that he or she is progressing well toward tenure when there are real problems that may pose roadblocks.

Pre-tenure evaluations

At most institutions, the pre-tenure evaluation, whether it is an annual evaluation or a third-year review, allows the tenure-track faculty to gauge their progress toward the goals of tenure and promotion.

It allows the evaluator to provide guidance to the candidate with suggestions and advice on what areas to work on, what improvements may be necessary, and how to organize and structure the tenure and promotion application and supporting materials.

The evaluator may also want to use the pre-tenure evaluation to encourage the candidate to continue working toward promotion and tenure at the institution (which avoids the problem of conducting a search and hiring an untested replacement).

Finally, the pre-tenure evaluation may often serve as a tool to evaluate the merit of the candidate and may be tied to salary increases. An evaluator may be reluctant to deny the candidate a pay raise and hurt the candidate’s family (it’s not the evaluator’s money).

Pitfalls of excessive niceness

An evaluator who is considered “nice” may end up being well-liked by the faculty, but there are several difficulties that emerge from being too nice.

First, the candidate may assume that his or her activities are satisfactory and may fail to make the necessary changes. Perhaps the candidate’s teaching evaluations are low, but the evaluator says he is doing fine: the significant change may not happen, and the evaluations remain at an unsatisfactory level.

Second, the candidate may be anxious about what is expected for the tenure and promotion process. If the evaluator tells her that she is doing fine and not to worry about tenure, then the anxiety may be reduced, but the quality of the application may fall short of requirements.

Third, the candidate may encounter a major reality check when her materials are reviewed by those other than the evaluator. If the department or the promotions and tenure committee find that her scholarship is below the university’s expectations, then she will feel blindsided and confused.

Grievances and litigation

When candidates suddenly face an unexpected denial of tenure or promotion, they may experience several of the common defense mechanisms: denial —they cannot accept that their work was unsatisfactory and thus will

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