August 4,  2020

 Colleagues,

We write to update and clarify the process regarding the use of Winter/Spring 2020 SET (student evaluation of teaching) data. As announced in March shortly after the pivot to remote teaching, Winter/Spring 2020 SET data will not be considered in faculty evaluation unless faculty choose to include them. Please read the information below carefully to note: 1) choices you may wish to make concerning your own evaluation; and 2) guidance for department chairs, committee members, and other evaluators of faculty teaching.  

• SETs were administered to students in Winter and Spring 2020.
• Faculty have received SET data from Winter/Spring 2020 courses.
• Winter/Spring 2020 SET results were not (and will not be) posted online. 
• The default position of the university is that faculty Winter/Spring 2020 SET data and student narratives (where available) will not be used in faculty evaluation, tenure, and promotion files.
• Provost’s Office annual and multi-year SET analyses, where provided, will not include Winter/Spring 2020 SET data.
• Individual faculty members may choose to includeWinter and/or Spring 2020 SET data and student narratives (where available) in their evaluations.  

Faculty who do not wish to have their Winter and/or Spring 2020 SET data and student narratives used in their evaluations do not need to take further action.

Faculty who do wish to have their Winter and/or Spring 2020 SET data and student narratives (if available) used in their evaluations:  

• will be expected to include all courses taught during selected term(s) (Winter and/or Spring 2020);
• will include their own SET data and student narratives (if available) in their evaluation materials; and
• may choose to include their own means or other analyses to supplement the Provost’s Office analyses, where provided.

Evaluators: When SETs and student narrative evaluation data from Winter and/or Spring 2020 are provided in an evaluation file, evaluators (department chairs, committee members, and others in the faculty evaluation process) will weigh that data in the same way that student response to teaching from other terms is evaluated.

This process was reviewed at the Faculty Senate Council on May 13 and discussed by the Faculty Affairs Committee on May 21, May 28, and July 22. 

Finally, please note that the decision to give faculty the choice of using SETs in evaluation did not interrupt the customary process whereby Information Technology forwards SET results to school/college administrative assistants. They received SET data as usual and, following their practice, passed the data on to many, but not all, department chairs or other evaluators. Department chairs and other evaluators are instructed and will be reminded by deans not to review, analyze, or consider this data in the faculty evaluation process unless a faculty member has elected to include the data. 

Contact Eileen Elrod (eelrod@scu.edu) or Kitty Murphy (cmurphy@scu.edu) if you have questions.

 

All the best,

Kate Morris                                                                                                                         Vice Provost for Academic Affairs                                                                 

Lisa A. Kloppenberg                                                                                                         Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs