Faculty Performance Evaluation & Merit

Please note that many policies governing faculty affairs at BU Wheelock are currently undergoing revision. Because of this, we ask you to consider these pages “under construction” and all content within them unofficial.

Each spring, faculty are asked by the Office of the Provost to complete two reports reflecting their accomplishments in teaching, scholarship, and service for the previous calendar year:

  1. External Activities Report (EAR); and
  2. Faculty Annual Report (FAR)/MyCV.

The External Activities Report (EAR) reflects faculty external compensated and uncompensated activities and the Faculty Annual Report (FAR) reflects faculty accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and research. The data in these reports is used in the aggregate by BU to track indicators of faculty productivity and accomplishments by each School/College. The FAR is generated using information collected in the BU MyCV platform.

All faculty members are responsible for keeping their information up to date in MyCV.

Faculty Productivity Form (FPR)

The third performance report that SED faculty complete is the Faculty Productivity Report (FPR). This form is internal to Wheelock and is used by the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) and the Office of the Dean to assess merit.

The FPR is a short addendum to accompany the Faculty Annual Report (FAR), wherein faculty provide additional details of their workload and performance in scholarship, teaching, and service. In addition, faculty write a narrative (up to 2 single-spaced pages), in which they can expand upon their productivity in any or all of the areas (scholarship, teaching, service) and submit that narrative as part of their FPR. The information provided in this form is used to determine merit pay increases for the upcoming academic year. It is critically important that all faculty complete an FPR, as merit raises will not be awarded otherwise. Forms are typically due in mid-February.

NOTE: ALL faculty are required to complete the Provost’s office forms (FAR and EAR). However, faculty may choose to opt out of being considered for merit review within Wheelock. In such instances, the faculty member would submit their FAR and EAR along with only page 1 of the FPR form completed with a note that they are opting out of merit review.

All faculty submit one copy of their EAR, FAR, and FPR to the designated administrative assistant, who compiles them in a folder for the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) to review. The FAC Chairperson assigns each individual’s folder to two members of the FAC committee for review and rating (one of the two reviewers is the individual’s department representative on FAC). Using the same scale as the self-evaluation (0-4), FAC committee members also provide a rating in each of the areas (scholarship, teaching, and service) for each faculty member they are assigned. The FAC committee member ratings are compiled in a master document and all rating discrepancies are identified for review at the FAC merit review meeting in March. All discrepancies will be discussed among the FAC committee until a consensus rating is determined. Following the FAC review process, a memo will be completed for each faculty member that includes the individual’s self-rating and the FAC rating for each domain (scholarship, teaching, and service).

In addition, for any instances where a discrepancy occurred between these ratings, a summary of the discussion and points noted that led to the increased or decreased rating(s) made by FAC will be included. These summaries will also be forwarded to the Office of the Dean. The Office of the Dean provides a final rating in each domain (scholarship, teaching, and service) and makes the final determination on merit. Faculty are provided the final determination and any additional notes from the Office of the Dean. Further, the Office of the Dean will allot sufficient time for meetings between the Dean and individual faculty to discuss their ratings and merit prior to the deadline by which the Dean must make final determinations for the Office of the Provost.

While the FPR is revised annually, a copy of last year’s form can be found on the Faculty Assembly Blackboard site.