AA 2004-14

With accelerating numbers of faculty participating in review for retention, tenure and promotion in the coming years, a full review of the Working Personnel Action Form (WPAF) and Supplementary Information Form (SIF) is needed. Working Personnel Action File and Supplementary Information Form files are reviewed to give timely, accurate, and adequate performance evaluations for tenure track faculty and tenured faculty eligible for promotion under review by Retention, Tenure and Promotion Committees. To provide constructive feedback, and to assist faculty members in preparing effective presentations of their work, consistent guidelines must be established, and these guidelines must be supported widely in the campus community. Parsimony in both narrative and supporting materials is needed. In order to achieve both consistency and reasonable length, while including all key materials that demonstrate professional performance, the following guidelines are adopted. Faculty under review shall be instructed to complete the Supplementary Information Form and Working Personnel Action File according to the following length guidelines.

Supplementary Information Form narratives shall be limited normally to a total of 1O pages, single space (or the equivalent), 2 spaces between paragraphs, 12-point font. Their focus shall be on key accomplishments and direction of professional work in all areas.

Working Personnel Action Files shall be limited normally to material that will fit in one 3-inch letter size 3-ring binder (or three 1-inch binders if that improves presentation in some way). In order to keep to these length requirements, faculty members are expected to focus on key information and to reflect on the meaning of key information for their professional development and success:

• For teaching, include syllabi, and selected handouts and evaluative measures.
• For research, scholarship, and creative activity, include evidence such as what was published (such as published title pages, tables of contents, abstracts, or articles) and what peer evaluations were involved, programs for shows or presentations, etc.
• For service include evidence such as letters indicating service on committees, event flyers, etc.

Faculty members under review should consider selecting key items for each category (teaching, research and service) that best represent their work. Raw data is not to be placed in the Working Personnel Action File. Summaries of research results are more appropriate. When appropriate, alternative media such as CDs, DVDs, video, or other formats may need to be submitted as part of the faculty member's WPAF.

It is strongly suggested that faculty follow these guidelines. However, observance of or a failure to observe these guidelines should not be criteria for personnel recommendations or actions.

These guidelines will be distributed to all appropriate faculty with the first Retention Tenure and Promotion notification package at the beginning of the academic review cycle.