Faculty Handbook

Guidelines for Periodic Review of Faculty

A regular review of faculty can improve the quality of the teaching, research, and service functions of the University. In addition, it will benefit individual faculty members by assuring that they are regularly informed of their status. Such a review shall include input from colleagues and students from the faculty member’s own administrative unit as well as from other appropriate units. The written summary of the review shall be provided to the faculty member, and the faculty member shall have ample opportunity to add written rebuttals or explanations.

Administrative faculty shall also be reviewed in terms of their administrative function.

Frequency of Review. The procedure for the actual review is best developed by the individual school, college, or division. Nevertheless, certain guidelines are appropriate for the University as a whole. All faculty with an FTE of 0.5 or more shall be reviewed as follows:

1. Those on annual tenure shall be reviewed annually.
2. Those on indefinite tenure shall be reviewed as follows:
   1. Assistant and Associate Professors shall be reviewed annually during their second through fifth years in rank at OSU and during any period in which they are reviewed intensively for promotion in rank. Otherwise, they shall be reviewed at least once every three years.
   2. Professors and tenured Senior Instructors shall be reviewed at least once every three years.
3. Those on fixed–term Senior Research professorial appointments shall be reviewed as described for faculty with indefinite tenure.
4. Other faculty on fixed–term appointments, including those faculty without rank, other fixed–term faculty with professorial rank not described in (3), Instructors, Faculty Research Assistants, Senior Faculty Research Assistants, untenured Senior Instructors, and Research Associates, shall be reviewed annually during their first five years of service; during any period in which they are being reviewed intensively for promotion in rank or (for faculty without rank) advancement in professional title; and at least once every three years thereafter.
5. Faculty on multi–year or extended fixed–term appointments shall be reviewed annually.

However, no periodic review is required for the following faculty members on fixed–term appointments:

• Emeritus appointments
• Temporary postdoctoral appointments
• Visiting appointments for two years or less.

Any faculty member eligible for review is entitled to a review at any time, upon the member’s request.

Each school, college, or division shall annually report those members of its faculty reviewed to the Office of Academic Affairs.

Nature of the Evaluation. In each instance, the evaluation shall include:

1. a statement of current responsibilities of the faculty member; and
2. signed comments on the faculty member’s progress in teaching, research or other scholarly pursuits, extension, librarianship, professionally related service, and University service from those persons designated by the department, school, or University to make the evaluations.

The sources of information used as the basis for the evaluation should be included. Sources to be used are current and former students, other faculty from this University or other universities, professional colleagues and, if appropriate, the public. In all instances, the evaluation shall be based only on material that is appropriate to the faculty member’s profession and the performance of faculty assignments.

The faculty member must be provided the opportunity of reading and initialing the evaluation and of furnishing written comments, explanations, or a rebuttal to the evaluations to be placed in the faculty member’s personnel records file. Disagreements on the contents of the file should be handled through normal University appeal procedures.

Initiation and Disposition. The initiation of the review, except one requested by a faculty member, is the responsibility of the department head or chair or the appropriate administrative officer. Principal investigators are reminded that all faculty on their projects, including Faculty Research Assistants, should be reviewed following the guidelines in this chapter.

The review and all related materials are to be placed in the faculty member’s personnel records file that is maintained by the department.