The future strength of the tenure system--and the survival of tenure itself--largely depends on the continuing support of faculty and the capacity of faculty to develop review processes that recognize emerging forms of scholarship. Assessments of the quality of scholarship through internal and external reviews, however, do not always reward new…

Like many other colleges and universities, Hofstra University now requires each department to create a "mission statement." Then, on the basis of this statement, a set of more specific curricular goals and objectives have to be created and, finally, a set of quantitative, behavioral criteria by which to assess the department's efforts. This new…

Assessment, it seems, is everywhere in higher education these days, as institutions develop assessment plans and accrediting bodies require evidence that students are meeting appropriate educational goals. Defining student learning as the central activity of higher education is not, in itself, controversial. Indeed, the assessment movement…

Most universities nowadays are in a middle of a crisis which involves academic freedom, faculty morale, inefficient use of time and resources, and most crucial, the nature of a liberal arts education. This crisis has emerged due to a seemingly innocuous goal: that of finding a way to "assess" how much students are learning. Assessment fails to…

Results of a conference reviewing recommendations favoring post-tenure evaluation were that: current procedures for evaluating faculty are satisfactory; additional formal periodic evaluation would incur unacceptable costs and scant benefit; and results of any evaluation should not be used as grounds for dismissal. (MSE)

This article decries the heavy use of student evaluations in decisions about faculty retention, tenure, and promotion. It suggests these numerical evaluations are actually consumer satisfaction surveys, have not been validated, encourage dumbed-down education, and are not useful to teachers seeking to improve instruction. (DB)

This article argues that higher education's current preoccupation with student evaluations of teachers encourages student passivity and disregards the importance of the contribution learners must make to learn; students who grade faculty for four years are being taught to blame someone else for their failures. (MSE)

An evaluation of the University of Colorado's posttenure faculty peer review process found that, although the process was successful in identifying faculty whose efforts might be reinvigorated through faculty development, the resources to effect change had seldom been forthcoming. The most useful aspect of the review was the most neglected. (MSE)

In this article, the author gives suggestions on how to make campus diversity initiative work. The author suggests making sure that the following conditions apply to a campus initiative before getting involved: (1) The communications about the initiative, on and off campus, are comparable to those for a capital campaign; (2) The initiative has an…

A survey of 63 college provosts and academic vice presidents concerning evaluation of tenured faculty found that, although frequency and form of evaluation vary widely, the large majority of institutions do perform regular reviews of tenured faculty. Most respondents also felt that the tenure system works relatively well. (MSE)