Abstract:
The salary of college faculty often is based on a merit and market factors rather than a fixed time-ingrade system. Merit evaluation should be based on the job description, faculty rank, and percent time devoted to teaching, research and service. This paper describes a merit system used in an Agronomy and Horticulture Department. The teaching matrix evaluates efforts in undergraduate and graduate instruction, student credit hour production, student advisees, and student and department head evaluations. The research matrix system is divided into two metrics, publication numbers, and grant dollars. The service matrix is divided into recruiting,community, department, university and professional service and is based on hours spent in each category, compared to a targeted total number of hours. The ratio of undergraduate students/FTE has increased slightly over the last five years along with an increase in graduate students per FTE indicating that merit for teaching is encouraging student enrollment. Research publications /FTE have increased, again indicating the merit system is improving research productivity. Currently service evaluation may be the least effective evaluation tool, as merit for service has not been tied to productivity. Nevertheless, the system has the flexibility to change the weighting factors to better reflect the changing needs of the department.
Keywords:
evaluation, system, faculty
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