LEAD+ Equitable Practices for Evaluating Faculty Amid COVID-19

Sponsored by: Academic Personnel Office, UMass Amherst ADVANCE Program, and the Office of Faculty Development

LEAD+ is a professional development and support program for heads and chairs, offered by the Academic Personnel Office and the Office of Faculty Development. The sessions cover topics of common concern to department leaders. The session is open to all heads and chairs.

This session’s presenters include Beth Mitchneck, Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona and former National Science Foundation Program Officer for ADVANCE, and Michelle Budig, Vice Provost for Faculty Development.

Faculty members are evaluated at regular intervals during their careers. Are those evaluations fair? Can we make them fairer? This workshop focuses on 1) the research on how we practice faculty evaluation and an assessment of how equitable our standard measures are, and 2) tools to conduct equitable evaluations across gender, race, rank, sub-discipline, and discipline. Learn about hidden bias in review letter writing, research metrics, and service participation, and how to counteract the effects of documented biases in evaluation practice. The workshop includes concrete tools for heads, chairs, and directors to consider their own role in faculty evaluation and how to provide leadership to one’s department on conducting equitable evaluations.