Merit Review Process

Joint Communication No. 14
April 6, 2017

Dear BGSU Faculty Colleagues,

In this latest installment of joint communications between the BGSU-FA and Administration on the continued implementation of our second collective bargaining agreement, we want to alert you to the shifting of the process for conducting merit reviews from the spring semester to the fall semester, and offer recommendations to help ensure a smooth transition.

As noted in Joint Communication No. 13 (November 29, 2016), beginning this fall we will be using the academic year as the period of merit performance. Specifically, the process for your next merit review begins at the start of the Fall 2017 semester and reviews your performance based on Academic Year 2016-2017 (i.e., Fall 2016, Spring 2017, and Summer 2017).

Also, a s part of the shift to a “common review process” agreed to in the current collective bargaining agreement, the merit review process for all faculty will shift to the fall semester. The merit review process will now also serve as the annual review process for NTTF members in year seven and beyond (Article 14, Section 5.3.1), as well as the process for evaluating tenured faculty performance to determine if it has been unacceptable in any of the areas of teaching/librarian effectiveness, research, or service (Article 31, Section 3.1).

At this time, we recommend that:

• Faculty should plan to prepare and submit their merit dossiers shortly after the start of the Fall 2017 semester. Starting the merit dossier before the end of the spring semester and finalizing it immediately after returning for the fall semester is suggested.

• Academic departments/schools should confirm that the committee responsible for providing merit recommendations to the chair/director will be in place and ready to begin the merit review process early in the fall semester.

Deadlines for submitting merit dossiers and department/school merit recommendations to chair/director, etc., are being finalized and will be shared before the end of the academic year.

This joint communication will be archived on the Provost website. 

Best wishes for a successful semester.

Rodney K. Rogers, Ph.D. 
Provost and Senior Vice President

David J. Jackson, Ph.D.
President, BGSU Faculty Association