Merit Review Procedure

Media Arts and Production – approved April 3, 2020

1. The Merit Review Committee consists of 3 full-time faculty members.
   1. The committee has three members. Every year, a new member is elected.  The unit director appoints the third member. Whether appointed or elected, all members serve for two years[1]. The committee must have at least one untenured or NTT faculty. Any full-time faculty member with at least 50% appointment can be on the committee.
      1. The unit director cannot be on this committee.
      2. Whenever possible, elections and appointments should ensure that the committee has at least one member continuing on from the previous year.
   2. Elections take place in November.
      1. An email is sent out, requesting nominations. You can nominate yourself.
      2. Nominees are asked if they will serve.
      3. Faculty vote for one (or more when required) people on the list of nominees. They send their vote to a staff assistant. The vote remains anonymous.
      4. The top vote-getter(s) are selected for the committee. If there is a tie, the unit director chooses.
2. The committee selects its own chair. The committee chair:
   1. Schedules the meetings.
   2. Runs the meetings.
   3. Takes notes.
   4. Reports results to the Dean.
3. The unit director is expected to attend the Merit Committee meetings as an ex officio member. The unit director does not have voting rights in the committee.
4. The committee reviews a packet of faculty information, which includes but is not limited to: DMAI, evaluations, grade distributions, and resume. Additional information can include syllabi, actions taken to improve teaching, descriptions of current creative or research activity, any special or extenuating circumstances, and any other material the faculty member wishes to provide. Faculty are encouraged (though not required) to write a narrative summary of their accomplishments for the previous year and include as supplemental material to the DMAI.
5. The committee reviews each faculty member’s information and gives a score of 1-5 for Teaching, Service, and, in the case of Tenure-Track faculty, Research or Creative Activity. The scores are 5 Outstanding, 4 Very Good, 3 Adequate, 2 Needs Some Improvement, and 1 Inadequate. Some of the norms to be followed include: 
   1. In reviewing teaching evaluations, the committee is expected to focus on the general tone, not specific complaints or compliments by individual students.
   2. The committee will also consider the career stage of faculty under consideration.
   3. The Merit Review committee chair sends the scores (only) to the Dean on or before the March 1 deadline.
6. The committee also writes a summary statement of the committee’s discussion. A draft version of the summary is given to the faculty member in person, prior to April 1. After this meeting, the faculty member is invited to write a response. The committee considers the discussion and the response before writing the final version of the statement. The committee may also include the faculty member’s response in the body of the statement. Both the scores and the statement are sent to the unit director.
7. The Merit Review Committee sends the Dean a written assessment of the unit director’s performance during the previous year. This document is due on or before March 1.
8. The deadline for completion of the committee’s work is the first week in March.

[1] To provide institutional memory and year-to-year continuity on this committee, faculty may be elected to serve a one-year term, allowing membership to be staggered. Single-year term service will be decided by coin toss, performed by a staff assistant after tallying votes.