Policy for Faculty Evaluation of Administrators

Purposes

  1. Provide formative information to administrators for the purpose of improving and evaluating performance.
  2. Provide an avenue facilitating communication between faculty and administration by opening a forum that stimulates the independent expression of views of faculty members on administrative performance.
  3. Provide faculty and academic staff (with appointments of 50% or greater) input to the appropriate appointing officer concerning the performance of the Chancellor, the Provost/Vice Chancellor, the Dean of the Graduate School, and the deans of Colleges.
  4. Exercise faculty governance.
  5. Include administrators in the process of review analogous to what faculty experience.

Membership

Senate Subcommittee on the Evaluation of Administrators (SSEA)

Six members as follows: four faculty senators elected annually to staggered three-year terms and two academic staff senators appointed annually by the Academic Staff Committee. No more than two members shall be from a single college. No more than one member shall be from a single department in a departmentalized school or college. Nominations and elections for the faculty members will take place at the May Faculty Senate meeting. The chair shall be a faculty member elected by the committee.

Procedures

  1. The faculty, in cooperation with the Office of the Secretary of the University and in consultation with the appropriate appointing officer, participates in periodic evaluation of the UWM Chancellor, Provost/Vice Chancellor, the Dean of the Graduate School, and deans of Colleges. Each college’s faculty shall establish policy for, and carry out, evaluation of its Associate Deans by the appropriate college constituents, at least once every three years.
  2. The Chancellor, the Provost/Vice Chancellor, the Dean of the Graduate School and the deans of Colleges will be evaluated by their constituents (as defined below) in their 3rd full academic year of service (from the date of appointment to the position), and every 3 years thereafter.
  3. The constituents for the Chancellor, the Provost/Vice Chancellor, and the Dean of the Graduate School are all faculty and academic staff (with appointments of 50% or greater) at the University. The constituents for the Dean of a College are all faculty and academic staff (with appointments of 50% or greater) in the College.
  4. The SSEA assumes responsibility for the design and approval of the questionnaires to be used to survey the constituents of each class of administrator. The questionnaire will ask respondents to rate and comment on the administrator’s strengths and opportunities for further growth. The number of questions on a questionnaire should be limited to keep the survey short. The questionnaires carry over from year to year, but may be revised by the SSEA with notification to the University Committee. The most recent questionnaires are available for review through the Secretary of the University’s office.
  5. The administrator being evaluated will be provided with the questionnaire to be used for their evaluation, prior to it being distributed. The administrator will also have the opportunity to prepare an up to two page self-evaluation, which should describe the administrator’s strengths and opportunities for further growth, explicitly addressing plans/strategies for growth areas. The administrator shall have fifteen (15) working days to review and respond to the questionnaire, including providing the self-evaluation. The SSEA is not required to accept questionnaire changes requested by the administrator, but shall provide the self-evaluation to survey recipients. The self-evaluation shall be attached as an appendix to the final evaluation report.
  6. The Office of the Secretary of the University shall be responsible for the electronic distribution of the questionnaire to all constituent faculty members and academic staff (with 50% appointment or greater). The questionnaire will be distributed by November 1st, in the first semester of the administrator’s evaluation year, and collected two weeks later.
  7. Members of the SSEA will use the results of the questionnaire and the report of any prior SSEA evaluation of this administrator to compile a preliminary evaluation report. This evaluation report will include both the overall response rate (the number and percentage of faculty and academic staff who were sent and then who completed surveys) as well as aggregate numeric results and a summary of written comments.
  8. The SSEA’s preliminary evaluation report will be electronically distributed to the administrator being evaluated along with all the written comments. The administrator shall have fifteen (15) working days within which to review and provide comments on the committee’s preliminary report. The SSEA shall have ten (10) working days to examine any comments received from the administrator being evaluated and to make any additions or corrections for its final evaluation report. The SSEA is not required to make changes to the report.
  9. Then the SSEA’s final evaluation report will be provided to the administrator being evaluated, who shall have twenty (20) working days to produce a response, consisting of a summary of any and all actions that have been taken, or are planned in response to the report. If no response is received by the SSEA within the timeframe, it shall be noted that the administrator did not respond. The response (or notice of lack thereof) will be added as an appendix to the final evaluation report.
  10. The SSEA will forward its final evaluation report (with the response appendix) to the Secretary of the University who will distribute it to appropriate parties with appropriate security, considering that this report is an employee review. In particular, the report will be made available to the appointing officer of the administrator being reviewed and to the members of the University Committee. Finally, the constituent faculty and academic staff shall be afforded the opportunity to review the report in a secure manner.

Document History

  • Revision 10: May 6, 2025 (FD2137R8)
  • Revision 9: April 20, 2023 (FD2137R7)
  • Revision 8: December 10, 2020 (FD2137R6)
  • Revision 7: April 28, 2019 (FD2137R5)
  • Revision 6: February 15, 2018 (FD2137R4)
  • Revision 5: May 17, 2027 (FD2137R3)
  • Editorial Revision: April 12, 2016
  • Revision 4: November 17, 2005 (FD2137R2)
  • Revision 3: November March 25, 1999 (FD2137R1)
  • Revision 2: April 16, 1998 (FD2137)
  • Revision 1: November 18, 1993 (FD1863R1)
  • First approved: April 22, 1993 (FD1863)