New Faculty Improvement Leave Application and Evaluation Process

May 13, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

Article 22, Section 9 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement established a Joint Faculty Improvement Leave Committee (JFILPC) to make non-binding recommendations to the Provost and the BGSU-FA President in the interest of enhancing the quality of the FIL application and evaluation process. The committee, consisting of the six members of the Labor-Management Committee (LMC) and three additional members appointed by the Faculty Senate, submitted their recommendations in mid-December.

The Provost and BGSU-FA President requested that LMC explore further one of the future considerations provided by JFILPC, i.e., the alignment of BGSU’s current FIL evaluation process with those at other collectively bargained state universities in Ohio. Based on this benchmarking, LMC provided an additional recommendation to the Provost and BGSU-FA President to better align our FIL evaluation process with these peer institutions. In late April, the Provost and BGSU-FA President endorsed the combined set of recommendations by JFILPC and LMC.

Highlights of the new FIL application and evaluation process include:

• A standard set of deadlines for the FIL application and evaluation process with training/mentoring opportunities in advance of the application deadline
• Independent reviews of the FIL application at the academic unit, Chair/Director, and Dean and forwarded to the Provost for his final decision and recommendation to the President/Board of Trustees
• A standard evaluation process, including a multi-dimensional proposal evaluation rubric, for use by all evaluators
• Guidelines for both evaluative feedback to decision makers and formative feedback to the applicant
• Management of the FIL process through Faculty 180

The Provost and BGSU-FA President have charged LMC with updating the 2020-2021 FIL application and evaluation process materials. These materials will be available by the first day of the 2020-2021 academic year contract when the FIL application process is opened to all Bargaining Unit Faculty Members.

Best wishes for a successful spring semester.

Regards,

Joe Whitehead, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President

David Jackson, Ph.D.
President, BGSU Faculty Association