Questions:
"As a follow up to the award results for Summer Research Grants, what is the two year history for the awarding of Summer Teaching Grants? Also, how many/what percentages are awarded for newer faculty versus established faculty?"
Response:
At the request of the Provost, the Faculty Enhancement Committee (FEC) conducted an extensive quantitative and qualitative examination of our process for reviewing Summer Teaching Grant (STG) proposals. The Provost made his request at the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year and the FEC communicated the results of our examination to the Provost’s office on January 16th, 2008.
To summarize the FEC’s report to the Provost; the committee examined statistical data on applicants and proposal scores for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years. The committee determined that there was no discernable bias or prejudice indicated by these data. We examined a wide range of variable including average scores for proposals by college of applicant, college of reviewer, sex of applicant, sex of reviewer, etc. Additionally, the committee members personally reviewed four of the proposals from the 2007-2008 year; the top ranked proposal, the bottom ranked proposal, and two proposals that bracketed the established cut point. On the basis of their qualitative review of the four proposals, the committee determined that the 2007-2008 proposals had received appropriate rankings based upon the criteria used by reviewers. The committee also made recommendations for continued improvements to the process of reviewing STG proposals for the upcoming 2008-2009 academic year.
In sum, the committee confirmed that the review process is robust and appropriate for evaluating the STG proposals and will continue to seek to improve the process in an effort to encourage enhancement of faculty teaching and scholarship. Indeed, the process the FEC established this year requires that the committee conduct similar reviews of the review process each year. Following the Research Committee’s response to a similar question, we provide the data below which tabulates the numbers of applications received and recommended by the committee for funding for the past two review cycles (broken down by year, college, and department).
The list of proposals we recommend that Academic Affairs fund is based upon the average of three reviews using six separate criteria (see the review rubric copied below). Reviewers are selected by FEC members and each proposal is reviewed by faculty both from within and outside of the applicant’s college.
As to what percentage of the proposals are awarded to new versus non-new faculty, the FEC does not take into consideration a faculty member’s date of first employment at UNF when reviewing the merits of their proposal. Furthermore, the criteria we have established do not provide for a consideration of such information in the reviewer’s proposal evaluations. Of the 2007 Summer Teaching Grant awardees, two, or (28.5%) were awarded to new faculty, defined as those faculty members in their first two years of service. Of the six 2008 Summer Teaching Grant awardees, none were awarded to new faculty. |
