Faculty annual performance evaluation is governed by Board Policy 3356-10-29 rather than by the collective bargaining agreement. Article 14 states that evaluation is not a bargainable subject and that compliance with the policy is not subject to grievance or arbitration. That makes understanding the policy yourself more important than it used to be.
The deadline is May 20, and missing it is worse than you think. If you do not submit your portion by May twentieth, the evaluation proceeds anyway — and because chairs and deans are directed not to assume any information, they are required to assess every area as “does not meet expectations.” Two such ratings in the same category within three years mandates post-tenure review.
A missed deadline and a genuine performance problem produce the same rating on your record. Put May 20 in your calendar every year.
If you are on leave, including FMLA, you can agree an alternative deadline with your chair and dean — arrange it in advance, in writing. If you are on sabbatical or faculty improvement leave, you still submit an annual evaluation in addition to the reports the agreement requires.
What gets evaluated
Any area in which you devote five per cent or more of your annual workload. That may include teaching; research, scholarship, creative activity or commercialization; service; clinical activities; administrative responsibilities; and other recognized duties. Areas evaluated correspond to your assigned workload for summer, fall and spring — so workload plans and reports need to be accurate.
Each area receives one of three summary assessments: exceeds performance expectations, meets performance expectations, or does not meet performance expectations.
How teaching is assessed
- Student evaluations of teaching account for at least twenty-five per cent of the teaching component, by statute. You are evaluated in every course every semester unless the chair, dean and provost approve an exclusion in advance. Team-taught courses are evaluated individually.
- Chair or dean observation is discretionary — they decide whether, when, and how often.
- Peer evaluation is summarized by the chair, but that summary is standalone: it does not factor into the rubric or the summary assessment. Peer review is formative by design (Policy 3356-10-27), and participation runs on a two-year rotation in which you alternate between reviewing and being reviewed.
Non-teaching workload
All full-time faculty are assumed to carry thirty annual credit hours. Tenured and tenure-track faculty must account for six non-teaching hours alongside twenty-four instructional hours. Any reassigned time approved by the dean or provost that reduces your instructional load has to be accounted for through materials you submit — research and scholarship, service, or other assigned duties.
The rubric
Your chair and/or dean develop the rubric, the dean approves it, and the provost retains final authority over the criteria. Rubrics are supposed to use standardized, objective and measurable metrics and to align with program goals.
Read your department’s rubric at the start of the year, not in May. If it is vague, unmeasurable, or not aligned to your actual assignment, that is worth raising through departmental governance while it can still be changed.
If you receive a “does not meet expectations”
The policy requires that you be given specific recommendations for correcting the shortcoming and a timeline for doing so. If you receive the rating without both, say so in writing.
You have fifteen days from receiving the final assessment to appeal, by submitting an appeal application in the faculty success technology platform. Application forms come from the Institute for Teaching and Learning on request.
A five-member committee is formed within fifteen days: three appointed by the provost and two appointed by the President of the Association. No member may come from your department. You may submit a written rebuttal. The committee meets with you, your chair, your dean, and anyone else it thinks appropriate, and makes a recommendation to the provost within thirty calendar days. If it misses that deadline, the provost’s decision stands.
Contact the President (president@ysuoea.org) or the Grievance Chair (grievance@ysuoea.org) the week the rating arrives. The chapter appoints two seats on that committee, and fifteen days is not long to prepare a rebuttal.
What to do all year
- Keep contemporaneous records of teaching, scholarship and service. Reconstructing a year in May is far harder than maintaining it.
- Keep your workload plan and report accurate — they determine which areas are evaluated at all.
- Read the rubric in September.
- Treat the first “does not meet” rating as serious, even if it feels like a formality or a personality matter. Two of them start a process that can end your tenure.