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Senate Task Force on Annual Merit Review

Charge

This committee will perform a broad survey of faculty merit/annual review processes at each school to identify both common practices and heterogeneity of the merit processes; catalog effective practices; and make recommendations to improve merit review at USC. The questions guiding the work of this committee include:

  1.  What are the intended purposes of the faculty annual/merit review process?
  1. Does the process in place at each school meet the intended purpose(s) and goal(s) for the review for each track and rank?
  2. What is the role of the annual/merit review process in helping faculty in each track and rank identify areas of professional strength and areas for improvement? How are merit/annual review processes aligned with promotion preparation and mentoring?
  3. What kind of materials are compiled or developed by faculty as part of the annual/merit review for each track and rank? Do materials developed for the review by faculty align with or reflect their effort profiles?
  4. What is the role, if any, of course learning evaluations and faculty peer teaching evaluations? 
  5. Should annual review be linked to merit pay increases?
  6. Is the annual review process effective in supporting the continued productivity of more senior faculty?
  7. Are there any pockets of USC where faculty consider the annual review process to be unusually counter-productive (measuring the wrong things and not measuring things that should matter)?
  8. How should annual review assess service contributions for each track and rank?

Chair

Image result for jessica cantiello usc

Jessica Cantiello (Co-Chair), jessica.cantiello@usc.edu

Lawrence O. Picus

Larry Picus (Co-Chair), lpicus@rossier.usc.edu

Members

Report

Final Report and Recommendations