Your leadership in the annual evaluation process is vital to faculty development and institutional excellence. The following key practices ensure evaluations are timely, consistent, and aligned with university guidelines. 

• Review and follow the procedures for annual evaluation outlined in the Faculty Handbook and unit guidelines.
• Remind faculty when and how to submit their annual evaluation materials.
• Complete initial evaluations for new faculty members at the beginning of their second full semester.
• Meet all deadlines specified in the Faculty Handbook and unit guidelines.
• Meet with each instructional faculty member to discuss the preliminary evaluation unless the meeting is cancelled by mutual agreement of the AUH and the faculty member.
• Write an annual evaluation letter or memorandum that evaluates the faculty member’s performance, gives guidance about future goals, and, if applicable, progress toward tenure and/or promotion.
• Discuss the relative weight assigned to performance areas with instructional faculty members, in preparation for FAAP Submission.
• Archive the evaluation letter and any appeal documents, if applicable, in unit-level or college-level personnel files.

Clarity and Alignment with Goals and Guidelines

• Be specific and clear in explaining your evaluation in each area. Connect praise and constructive criticism to specific language in the FAAP, unit-level guidelines, the Faculty Handbook, and/or your observations.
• Contextualize feedback with a narrative explanation. Evaluations must go beyond numerical/ordinal ratings.
• Incorporate the big picture by connecting the evaluation to the unit’s teaching, scholarly achievement and professional qualifications, and service goals/needs.
• Carefully consider workload allocations when evaluating performance areas. For example, expectations for excellence in scholarly achievement and professional qualifications will differ for faculty with a 30% research load compared to faculty with a 10% research load.

Constructive and Supportive Feedback

• Be honest with your faculty about performance concerns. Annual evaluations are meant to help faculty, but this is only possible if AUHs are clear and candid.
• As a related point, be intentional about delivering challenging feedback. As Paese (2016) observes, “Most feedback is delivered badly." Challenging feedback should be delivered clearly and with an ethic of care.
• When discussing opportunities for improvement, if applicable, identify resources such as mentorship and workshops that would help the faculty member. Brainstorm with the faculty member about how to make progress.
• If you have performance concerns, don’t wait until the annual evaluation process to raise your concerns with the faculty member. 

Reflective Practices

• Encourage faculty to describe the impact of their service, including informal and/or unassigned service.
• In discussing teaching, encourage faculty to describe whether they adopted a new pedagogical approach or substantially revised a course from a previous iteration.
• Be forward-looking. Work with faculty to develop clear, actionable plans. Discuss any planned changes in workload distribution, if applicable.