Key Policy Changes:
- These changes are for all tenure-track, continuing status track and career-track faculty are can be found here: UHAP Policies 3.2 and 4A.2. A notification about these changes was sent in June 2022.
- Fewer required in-person meetings with Heads/Directors. Meetings are required on an annual basis for the following:
- Faculty at an assistant rank. Annual meetings are encouraged for those at the associate rank.
- If a rating in any category is "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" (see UHAP Section 3.2.01).
- As requested by the faculty member.
- The peer review narrative is shared with the faculty member being reviewed.
- The ratings have changed:
- Peer review ratings are “Meets or exceeds expectations” or “Does not meet expectations.”
- The Department Head/Director ratings are as follows:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsatisfactory | Needs Improvement | Meets/Exceeds Expectations |
Truly Exceptional |
- Please note the following related changes in Faculty Portfolio (formerly "UAVitae") software use for annual review. It is expected that all units will use the following process beginning in 2023 for the review of 2022 activity.
- University-wide forms with the updated ratings are now provided for both peer review committees and Department Heads/Directors. Old unit level forms have been sunsetted.
- Faculty no longer need to complete all activity sections for annual review (unless required by your college for accreditation purposes). An updated CV will be uploaded. It is recommended to use the CV template required for promotion and tenure, see here for more information.
Background for Policy Changes:
Two years of shared governance process were undertaken to consider, develop, and provide feedback on annual review policy changes. They are as follows:
- 2018 - Organizational Health Index indicated concerns about annual review process for faculty and staff.
- 2019 - Our Best Work Environment Praxis Workshops provided additional details about concerns/issues with annual review for faculty and staff.
- 2020 - Two taskforces separately worked on review and recommendations to improve the annual review policy for faculty. One taskforce was comprised of faculty members, and the other was comprised of department heads. Both taskforces had very similar recommendations, so for this reason, they provided one summary report that combined recommendations. You can find the report submitted by Colin Blakely, Ronal Hammer, and Cecile McKee here.
- 2021 - Annual review policy changes were shared with key stakeholders.
- Proposed changes were presented to Faculty Senate in February 2021 and feedback was provided.
- Proposed changes with feedback were presented to Faculty Senate in April 2021. In a Faculty Senate poll taken in April 2021, 63% of senators supported the proposed changes.
- Proposed policy changes were made public for feedback in Fall 2021. Comments were received and revisions made.
- Proposed policy revisions were presented to Faculty Senate in December 2021.
- 2022 - Annual review policy changes were revised and submitted for public feedback in the Spring.
- 2022 - Annual review policy changes were approved June 2022.
Formative Approaches to Annual Review Meetings
Additional resources for Formative Approaches to Annual Review Meetings can be found here.
Software Use Changes for Annual Review
As a result of an in-depth review of UAVitae by Faculty Fellows (find their reports here), significant changes in the use of the software are being implemented. The overall platform will be renamed Faculty Portfolio and includes two key components: (1) Annual Profile for annual review and updates for UAProfiles, and (2) Review, Promotion and Tenure (RPT) for workflow review of promotion and tenure packets.
Annual Profile (formerly UAVitae) will be streamlined to focus only on the portions that are used for UAProfiles. This includes imported data (courses taught, publications), profile information, and honors/awards. For purposes of UAProfiles, we request that on an annual basis faculty will review imported data (courses and publications), update their profile, honors and awards, and opportunities for undergraduate research.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Evaluations tab on the UA Vitae Resources and Training - Faculty How-To Videos & Training webpage contains a video to guide you through the process of viewing and/or responding to evaluations.
It is recommended that each college update their bylaws before beginning their unit-level annual review process.
Yes, the faculty member will be able to see the narrative comments and the ratings from the peer review committee and the Department Head/Director.
Annual review criteria is set at the department/unit and college level. Please review the criteria for your department/unit and/or college.
The final rating agreed upon by the Head/Director and faculty member includes “truly exceptional, meets/exceeds expectations, needs improvement, or unsatisfactory.” This could be used as a four-point scale with the high score indicating a truly exceptional rating and the low score indicating an unsatisfactory rating. Peer review committees will use the ratings: "meets/exceeds expectations" or "does not meet expectations."
The peer review committee will need to use the two-rating system. In order to provide more depth to their rating, they can provide additional description within the peer review narrative.
These are confidential materials. Only the faculty member and Department Head/Director can see both peer review comments and Department Head's/Director's comments. Peer review committee members can only see their own comments; they cannot see the Department Head's/Director's review or ratings.
Yes, this is currently being worked on, and will likely be ready in late Spring 2023.
Faculty will be able to view the committee’s ratings and comments in Faculty Annual Profile (formerly UAVitae).
You can upload an updated CV as many times as needed, up to the deadline. Let your department know as soon as possible if you will miss the deadline.
- Ensure that the Start/End dates of your activities fall within the year under review. For instance, if the year under review is 2022, make sure your activity’s start date is for a semester (Spring-Winter) occurring in 2022.
- Additionally, the system’s timeout period is 60 minutes. Timeout begins when no keyboard or mouse activity has been detected for several minutes. If you’re working on entering data and need to step away, be sure and Save first. As you’re updating your entries, save your work periodically to confirm the entries.
- Check your courses in Faculty Annual Profile (formerly UAVitae) prior to the end of the current semester. If the information is incorrect, work with your department’s Course Coordinator to have them update the course in UAccess Student, the system of record. Faculty Annual Profile is updated from campus systems of record, and information held in those systems is reflected in Faculty Annual Profile.
- If the correction is for a past semester, contact your Faculty Annual Profile admin, or email: uav-support@list.arizona.edu. Please provide your course name, title, catalog number, and the semester taught.