Policies & Procedures

Selection and Evaluation, Specific Positions

Procedures for Annual Evaluation and Quadrennial Review of Deans - 2B3

Preamble

Selection, evaluation, and retention of Deans shall be conducted in accordance with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, in particular, the statement on Faculty Participation in the Selection, Evaluation, and Retention of Administrators (AAUP Policy Documents and Reports, 10th Edition (Redbook), 2006, p. 145):

The AAUP Statement is based on “the conviction that interdependence, communication, and joint action among the constituents of a college or university enhance the institution’s ability to solve educational problems.” The AAUP Statement asserts the expectation that “faculty members contribute significantly to judgments and decisions regarding the retention or non-retention of the administrators whom they have helped select.”
The evaluation process shall be conducted with sensitivity to the personal and professional vulnerability under which it places the Dean. The effectiveness of the evaluation procedures demands that all participants regard them as credible. To this end, the evaluation procedures should guarantee the confidentiality of the views of the participants in the evaluation process. It is likewise reasonable to assume that certain, perhaps personal, observations in the report must remain internal to the evaluators, the Chancellor, and the Provost, upon their joint agreement. At the same time, it is important to avoid suppression (or the appearance of suppression) of conclusions that could reasonably be made public.
The primary purpose of the Annual Evaluation is to provide feedback for the purpose of helping the Dean to improve his or her performance during the term of office. A secondary purpose is to allow the faculty to communicate their evaluations directly to the Chancellor and the Provost. The Annual Evaluation should attempt to identify areas of strength, as well as weaknesses and areas of faculty concern. The Annual Evaluation is most effectively conducted against criteria as enunciated in stated goals and objectives and job descriptions. Schools or Colleges and their Deans are encouraged to develop such criteria and review them appropriately.
The primary purpose of the Quadrennial Review is to inform the decision to retain or not retain the Dean. That decision will take into account the Dean’s response to feedback from previous Annual Evaluations.
Selection, evaluation, and retention of the Dean shall be conducted by means of cooperation between the Selection Committee or Annual Evaluation Committee or Quadrennial Review Committee; the Provost, and the Chancellor. The Committee shall make its recommendations to the Provost, who makes recommendations to the Chancellor. The selection and retention of Deans shall be the responsibility of the Chancellor, in consultation with a) the Provost, and b) the faculty and other members of those Committees that conduct the selection and evaluation.

Policy

PROCEDURES FOR ANNUAL EVALUATION OF DEANS

The specific procedures for this Annual Evaluation shall be developed by each School or College and approved in writing by the Provost. The Schools or Colleges may augment the following procedures in developing their own, but their procedures shall make explicit at least the provisions in this document.
1. Annual Evaluation of Deans
  1. An Annual Evaluation of the performance of the Dean shall be conducted by the appropriate standing committee of that Dean's School or College or by a committee elected for that purpose by the voting members of the School's or College's faculty.
  2. The Annual Evaluation of the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research shall be conducted by the Graduate Council or through a committee that it designates.
  3. The Annual Evaluations of all Deans shall be conducted during the spring term and be concluded no later than May 1.
2. Purpose
  1. The primary purpose of the Annual Evaluation is to provide feedback for the purpose of helping the Dean to improve his or her performance during the term of office.
  2. A secondary purpose of the Annual Evaluation is to allow the faculty to communicate their evaluations directly to the Chancellor and the Provost. Annual Evaluations are most effectively conducted against criteria as enunciated in stated goals and objectives and job descriptions. Schools or Colleges and their Deans are encouraged to develop such criteria and review them appropriately. Those criteria may include attention to the effectiveness of the Dean in such areas as a) leadership, b) commitment to scholarly and academic affairs, c) the development and maintenance of open communication, d) the identification of issues and the resolution of conflicts, e) the development of internal and external resources, f) the nourishment of morale and the establishment of a working environment conducive to achieving individual and unit goals, g) the management of fiscal resources, and h) recruitment, affirmative action, and other personnel matters.
3. Confidentiality
  
  Confidentiality is a responsibility of the Annual Evaluation Committee. All matters, documentation, communication, and materials involved in the Annual Evaluation shall be treated as confidential to the extent allowed by the law. Since the Annual Evaluation Committee deals with personnel matters, their meetings will be closed to all persons other than those on a particular Annual Evaluation Committee. The chair of the Annual Evaluation Committee is responsible for maintaining confidentiality. University Legal Counsel should be consulted for guidance when necessary. All confidential materials will be kept by the chair of the Annual Evaluation Committee in the Office of the Provost to be shared only with persons involved in the evaluation process, and no copies of such materials are to be made or distributed. All persons involved in the evaluation process are responsible for maintaining confidentiality regarding materials or information they are privy to.
SEQUENCE OF ANNUAL EVALUATION STEPS
1. Formation of the Dean’s Annual Evaluation Committee. Each School or College:
  1. Shall stipulate that a review of the Dean or the Acting Dean be conducted annually beginning in the first academic year of his or her tenure in office, provided that he or she has been in office for at least six months of that academic year. The Annual Evaluation should be conducted beginning on or about February of that year and be concluded not later than May 1. This Annual Evaluation will not be conducted in the same academic year as the Quadrennial Review.
  2. Shall designate an appropriate standing Committee within the School or College or will provide procedures for the election of a special Committee. The members of either Committee should be elected, and should be selected according to School or College policy. The Committee should be composed of three or more faculty members, and have an odd number of members. The Committee shall select a member as Chair.
  3. Shall provide a formal mechanism to permit all tenured and tenure-eligible faculty with a full-time appointment in the School or College to participate in the review of the Dean. The extent to which staff, part-time, and term faculty will be permitted to participate in the evaluation process should be determined by the evaluation Committee.
2. Annual Evaluation Committee Responsibilities. Each School or College:
  1. Shall meet and design an instrument to be used for soliciting the opinions of the personnel within the School or College about the Dean’s performance in office. The evaluation instrument shall consider the written job description of the Dean and the specific duties of the Dean listed in the School or College’s operating papers. The Annual Evaluation Committee may conduct interviews as it deems appropriate. In subsequent years the Committee shall review the existing instrument while striving for consistency of evaluation from year to year.
  2. Shall consider data provided by the Dean to document the performance of the School or College and that of the Dean.
  3. Shall consider the recommendations made by the Committee in the previous year's Annual Evaluation and the responses of the Dean, the Provost, and the Chancellor to those recommendations.
  4. Shall include, among the materials considered by the Annual Evaluation Committee, a performance survey and analysis based on the job description for the Dean. The performance survey should include the solicitation of information through a questionnaire distributed to the faculty members identified in Section II. A. 3 above. This should occur at least in the second year after appointment and in the second year after each Quadrennial Review.
  5. Shall ensure the confidentiality of views and materials considered by the Committee as indicated above Section I. C.
3. Final Report and Recommendations
  1. The Annual Evaluation Committee shall prepare a report that includes a written list of recommendations for the Dean, based upon the Annual Evaluation. The Dean shall have an opportunity to make a written response to the Committee within a specified period of time.
  2. The Committee shall make a final report to the Chancellor, the Provost, and the Dean. The final report may incorporate the Committee’s summary of, and/or comments on, the Dean’s response. A copy of the Dean's response to the Committee's report and recommendations should accompany the report to the Chancellor and the Provost. The Committee shall submit at least a summary of its report to the faculty of the School or College. In the summary, certain information may remain private upon joint agreement of the Annual Evaluation Committee and the Chancellor and the Provost.
4. Files and Disposition of Data
  1. The Annual Evaluation Committee will develop and maintain appropriate files to fulfill its task. These files are to contain all official statements concerning duties, functions, and objectives of the position, all previous Annual Evaluations and Quadrennial Reviews, as well as all data gathered during the evaluation and review process.
  2. Following the preparation and recommendations of the Annual Evaluation report, the Chair of the Committee shall submit to the Provost all materials related to the evaluation so that he or she can proceed with his or her Annual Evaluation in an appropriate and timely manner.
  3. In determining if certain information in the final report should be kept confidential, the Annual Evaluation Committee, the Chancellor, and the Provost should give careful consideration to the wishes of the Dean. Sections of the report that are so agreed to be kept confidential, as well as the documentation upon which they are based and all materials collected by the evaluation [Section II. D. 1], should be carefully protected and maintained by the Chair of the Annual Evaluation Committee and kept in the Office of the Provost. Confidential sections of all final Annual Evaluation reports, and all documentation not retained as part of the Quadrennial Review will be destroyed in accordance with provisions of the Illinois State Records Act, 5 ILCS 160/1 et seq.
PROCEDURES FOR QUADRENNIAL REVIEW

The specific procedures for the Quadrennial Review shall be developed by each School or College and approved in writing by the Provost. The Schools or Colleges may augment the following procedures in developing their own, but their procedures shall make explicit at least the provisions in this document.
1. Quadrennial Review of Deans
  
  Provisions of the Faculty Senate Policy Recommendation specify that a review of the Dean's performance will occur at the beginning of the fourth year of the Dean's tenure in office, and every fourth year thereafter.
2. Purpose
  
  The primary purpose of the Quadrennial Review is to inform the decision to retain or not retain the Dean. That decision will take into account the Dean’s response to feedback from previous Annual Evaluations.
3. Confidentiality
  
  Confidentiality will be maintained the same as indicated in Section I, C.
SEQUENCE OF EVALUATION STEPS
1. Formation of the Dean’s Quadrennial Review Committee. Each School or College:
  1. Shall provide that a Quadrennial Review of the Dean's performance will occur at the beginning of the fourth year of the Dean's tenure in office, and every fourth year thereafter.
  2. Shall call for the constitution by the Provost of a Quadrennial Review Committee to be constituted in the same manner as the Procedures for Dean Selection [Section A. 1.].
2. Quadrennial Review Committee Responsibilities. The Quadrennial Review Committee:
  1. Shall develop its own rules of operation in consultation with the Provost and in full accordance with the provisions specified in this document.
  2. Shall consider appropriately comprehensive information, such as the Dean's self-assessment and interviews with appropriate administrators, faculty, staff, and students; and to consider at least the following:
    1. The performance of the School or College under the leadership of the Dean.
    2. The results of previous Annual Evaluations, and the Dean’s response to those evaluations.
    3. Other sources of information as deemed appropriate by the Committee.
  3. Shall ensure that the Dean has an opportunity to respond to the Committee's report and recommendations before they are finalized and transmitted.
  4. Shall ensure the confidentiality of views and materials considered by the Committee as indicated above Section I,C.
3. Final Report and Recommendations
  1. The Committee shall submit its findings and recommendations concerning performance and retention to the Provost with a copy to be submitted to the Dean.
  2. If the Provost decides to not accept the Quadrennial Review Committee’s recommendation concerning performance and retention, the Provost shall meet and discuss with the Committee his or her rationale for not accepting the recommendation.
  3. The Provost shall submit to the Chancellor his/her recommendation with copies to the Quadrennial Review Committee and the Dean. The Provost’s recommendations shall report the Quadrennial Review Committee’s findings. Where the recommendations of the Provost differ from the Quadrennial Review Committee’s findings, the Provost will provide a rationale for that divergence.
  4. The retention of Deans shall be the responsibility of the Chancellor, in consultation with a) the Provost, and b) the faculty and other members of those committees that conduct the retention review process. Following the Chancellor’s decision, the Chancellor shall meet and discuss with the Quadrennial Review Committee his or her rationale if he or she does not accept the Committee’s recommendation concerning retention.
  5. The Chancellor shall furnish copies of his or her final response to the Provost, the Quadrennial Review Committee and the Dean.
  6. The final report shall be submitted to the School or College, except for such sections as the Chancellor, the Provost and the Quadrennial Review Committee agree to keep confidential, together with a written response from the Provost and the Chancellor on the Committee's recommendations.
  7. The Chancellor may direct that the report not be disseminated in the case that the Dean is not retained.
4. Files and Disposition of Data
  1. The Quadrennial Review Committee will develop and maintain appropriate files to fulfill its task. These files are to contain all official statements concerning duties, functions, and objectives of the position, all previous Annual Evaluations and Quadrennial Reviews, as well as all data gathered during the evaluation and review process.
  2. Following the preparation and recommendations of the report, the Chair of the Committee shall submit to the Provost all materials related to the Quadrennial Review so that he or she can proceed with his or her review in an appropriate and timely manner.
  3. In determining if certain information in the final report should be kept confidential, the Quadrennial Review Committee, the Chancellor, and the Provost should give careful consideration to the wishes of the Dean. Sections of the report that are so agreed to be kept confidential, as well as the documentation upon which they are based and all materials collected by the Quadrennial Review, should be carefully protected and maintained in the Office of the Provost and shall be destroyed in accordance with provisions of the Illinois State Records Act, 5 ILCS 160/1 et seq.

Approved by Chancellor effective May 1, 2008
This policy was issued on May 13, 2009, replacing the October 7, 2008 version.
Document Reference: 2B3 (formerly 2B4 before policy 2B2 was deleted and all subsequent policies were renumbered)
Origin: RP 2-86/87; WC 7-91/92; OP 8/2/95; RP 1-07/08