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The UCLA CALL Summary
of Procedures #2
By means of the following, the Council on Academic
Personnel wishes to highlight many features which it finds desirable in a
well-prepared dossier for an appointment or promotion case. This list is
not intended to be exhaustive. The official and detailed description of
what such dossiers should contain can be found in The Call. A. Student Evaluations for the Past 3 or 4 Years A tabulation of the numerical rating achieved by the
candidate and a comparison with the Department average, or the group
average of all those teaching the same courses, is helpful. Letters which have been impartially solicited from
peers, faculty, teaching or research assistants, postdoctoral fellows,
students and others may be used to supplement teaching evaluations from
questionnaires. This applies especially to thesis advising, innovative
teaching projects, clinical or workshop guidance, and other teaching
activities outside the conventional classroom situation. Critical analyses
of syllabi prepared by the candidate can be valuable. C. Peer Evaluation Evidence of peer evaluation should be reflected in the
department ad-hoc and/or department letter, using the following methods: 4. Review of Materials A. List of Publications and/or Other Evidence Such lists should be in chronological order with some
method employed to indicate items that are new since last review. Particular
care should be taken to guard against double-counting. Each
item should be identified by a label such as: 1. book; 5. abstract; 6. paper in a symposium digest; 7. report; 8. review; and 9. other evidence. The labeling can be done item by item if the list is
not subdivided, or subdivisions by categories can be used, in which case
each sub-list should be chronological. The first and last page of each published item should
be noted. For items with joint authorship, it is helpful to indicate the
degree of contribution by the candidate. Clear identification of items
accepted but not yet in print, and of items submitted, is also desirable. B. Disaggregation of Collaborative Research It is important to clearly identify the candidate’s
role in each collaborated paper/publication. C. List of Co-Authors List UCLA faculty who have co-authored with the
candidate for actions where a review committee might be appointed. This
list should be indicated on the last page of the Bibliography in
alphabetical order. D. Departmental Review The Department review of the relevant record should not
be solely an advocacy document. Rather, it should be a balanced assessment
of all salient features (positive and negative), including points brought
out in the faculty meeting called to consider the case. The portion of the Departmental review concerned with
the candidate’s recent creative activity should be penetrating and
should offer a critique of all major items. What is the significance? Is
anything seminal? Are there known reactions from the candidate’s peers? When it is appropriate for the review in question that
letters of evaluation be solicited, the following procedure is
recommended: Internal letters should be requested from knowledgeable
sources, but with regard to the need to preserve a pool of faculty from
which a review committee can be formed if necessary. Internal referees
should only be selected if they can provide special information not
available from other sources. The candidate should be given the opportunity to
indicate potential referees who might have a prejudice. This is a category in which the actual activities vary
markedly from discipline to discipline. It is often helpful to include a
brief explanation of what constitutes pertinent activity in the given
discipline (e.g., editorship, consulting), followed by a description of
the candidate’s activities, their significance, and how the candidate’s
level of activity compares to the norm. In addition to a tabulation of the committees on which
the candidate has served, and the dates, it is helpful to point out which
of these committee assignments have been more than normally important and
what contributions the candidate made. If there is information available
about the effectiveness with which the candidate discharged these
committee assignments, it would be useful to include it. Many departments ask the candidate to place in the file
a written statement of the candidate’s own assessment of achievements in
teaching, research, and service since the last review. It can help all
reviewing agencies to understand the candidate’s philosophy of teaching,
construction of new courses, the nature of collaborative research, etc.
Guard against overlong self-statements. These letters can be very
informative but they should be kept to a modest length (3 to 5 pages) and
should not serve as a substitute for the penetrating departmental review. The department should place a clear statement in the
file which describes the faculty participation and voting procedures which
were followed in reviewing the dossier. Voting on appraisals should be on
a single closed ballot with one of three preferences checked (favorable,
reservations, unfavorable). All other voting can be on a yes/no basis. |
Questions concerning academic
policy should be
directed to the
Academic Personnel Office.
Revised 10/13/99
Web page updated 3/8/04