Course evaluation W2020 and tenure and promotion considerations

This message was originally sent to instructors and faculty members by James W.E. Rush, vice-president academic and provost.

I know that all of you have been working extremely hard over the last several days to shift your focus – whether this was to new ways of teaching and learning, or to ways in which you could change your research program. The president and I are extremely grateful for your efforts.
 
Your resolve to make these great changes shows great commitment to the institution and its mission. Thank you.
 
I want to provide direction on two important issues.
 
To instructors
 
After consulting with the academic planning team and the faculty deans, I am directing that course evaluations will continue where possible for the W2020 term.  
 
The data generated by the course evaluations will only be provided to the course instructor.
 
The course evaluation results for W2020 will not be seen by your chairs/directors or others unless you voluntarily share it. This means that the data will not be used in your evaluations (e.g. APR and T&P) unless you volunteer this information. In those cases where chairs, directors and deans may have already received some course evaluation information I am asking that they disregard it.
 
We want to ensure that students have the opportunity to provide formative feedback, while also providing the opportunity for instructors to share the information for evaluative purposes at their discretion.  
 
To tenure track faculty members in probationary terms
 
Tenure track faculty members in probationary terms granted one-year extension
 
The extraordinary circumstances that we currently face are likely to exist for the coming months. This will affect your ability to execute research activity and requiring all of us to adapt the ways we teach and foster learning. With this in mind, the University is offering tenure track faculty members who are in their probationary terms the option to extend their tenure clocks by one year, effective immediately.
 
I hope that these measures give you some confidence that we need to look at all normal processes and procedures in a new light and that we can take steps to ease the burden. These are unprecedented times, and I hope that we can all continue with the commitment to support the University and its mission through the disruption.