Provost shares COVID-19 adjustments to faculty evaluation

04/17/2020 

The following message about COVID-19 adjustments to faculty evaluations was sent to faculty by Provost Mark Prus:

A Message to Faculty;

First and foremost, I want to thank all of you for stepping up to the challenges of teaching remotely.  Making this transition in the middle of the semester with no preparation time is unprecedented in our campus history, and I am proud of the collaboration and dedication of the faculty and campus offices that have readily adjusted to rethink their outcomes, learn new technology and support our students. This is especially impressive as you are all facing your own challenges in these times.

We are now three weeks into the restart of the semester and have four more weeks to go until the end of the term.  It seems that faculty and students alike have made the adjustment to this new normal, and that we will get through this.  I commend all of you for your flexibility, resilience and courage in facing these difficult times.

I would like to take this opportunity to try to put your mind at ease about a couple of issues that we do have control over.  One has to do with the administration of Course Teacher Evaluations.  While SUNY System Administration and UUP have been working on statewide guidance, the faculty at SUNY Cortland should know that we are interested in providing the highest degree of flexibility to faculty with respect to CTEs. As you all know, the College Handbook establishes the requirement that CTEs are administered every third time a faculty member teaches a course.  For this semester, the college will waive that requirement.  I also agree with the Academic Faculty Affairs Committee’s recent recommendation to waive the more stringent requirements established in some department personnel policies and procedures. Faculty will not be judged for not including CTEs for the Spring 2020 semester in their personnel portfolios. 

Having said all that, I would encourage faculty to administer CTEs, if only for the purpose of collecting formative information from students about what worked well, and what didn’t, during this semester.  This information may be helpful for you personally, and you may even want to share feedback from students with your colleagues in your department, or across campus.  As educators, I would hope that we all see this as a learning experience.

Additionally, I know that faculty are concerned about the tenure and promotion process. SUNY System and UUP are working on guidance in this area, and we have considerable flexibility at the local campus level.  For faculty who find that their research agendas have fallen behind due to the COVID-19 crisis, we can offer the opportunity to stop their tenure clock for a semester, or even a year.  There will be no pause in tenure across the board, however, as other faculty may not want to delay a decision on tenure or promotion.

Thank you, again, for your patience and resilience.  I know that many of you are working together in ways that were never imagined.  Eric Edlund and Dakin Burdick, for instance, have developed a virtual Faculty Lounge in Microsoft Teams where faculty can share ideas, challenges and successes.  I will be happy to join in those virtual meetings and also commit to sending out an invitation for an online faculty meeting with the me next week on Wednesday, April 22, starting at 3 p.m.

Hang in there!

Mark J. Prus

Provost