Optometry Addendum - 2019

(Consistent with Article 13 of Memorandum of Agreement)

Addendum

This addendum has been prepared as directed by the Memorandum of Agreement section 13.5.1.

Specifically:

(a) Each Faculty shall have Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines setting out the evaluation criteria for that Faculty. The Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines shall be reviewed and updated no less than once every five (5) years, and changes shall be approved by a majority vote of the Faculty Council no later than 15 October in the year before evaluation calendar year to which the changes would apply.

(b) Each Department shall have an Addendum to their Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines setting out the performance expectations in the Department for scholarship, teaching, and service. The Addendum shall be reviewed and updated biennially, and changes shall be approved by: (i) a majority vote of members of the Department, and (ii) the Faculty Dean who shall review for consistency with the documents listed in 13.5.1(c) no later than 15 October in the year before the evaluation calendar year(s) to which the changes would apply.

(c) Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines and Departmental Addenda shall be consistent with this Agreement, and with University policies, procedures and guidelines (including the evaluation criteria set out in Policy 77). Departmental Addenda shall also be consistent with Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines. In case of a conflict, precedence shall be given first to this Agreement; then to University policies, procedures and guidelines; and then to the Faculty Performance Evaluation Guidelines.

This addendum was last reviewed:                 1st October 2019

This addendum was approved:                       12th October 2018

(16 Yes; 1 No; 1 Abstain; 18 Total votes)

Preface

The addendum is in no way exhaustive; however, it should give faculty a sense of general expectations.

Evaluation Process

  • The Director will be assisted with performance evaluations by the School’s Faculty Performance Evaluation Committee (FPEC), consisting of 4 elected tenured or continuing faculty members, two of whom must hold a clinical appointment (i.e. the committee will consist of 2 Regular Clinical Professoriate/Continuing Clinical Faculty & 2 Regular Professoriate). An effort will be made to strive for gender balance.
  • The FPEC will evaluate the data submitted by each faculty member prior to the meeting to discuss the submissions.
  • FPEC members are not present for the review of their own file, nor for any file of a member to whom they are related.
  • Each area of activity (scholarship, teaching and service) is scored separately for each member. Where data are available, scores obtained from third party evaluations for each member (such as teaching evaluations or clinical supervision evaluations) are compared for context to average scores in the same evaluation across all members.
  • Accommodations such as teaching relief or special assignments should be communicated to the committee by the Director.
  • The committee generally evaluates the files in alphabetical order and attempts to review parity of assessments between similar ranks/assignments as they progress through the files.
  • Notes of comments made by the committee are taken during the meeting. The committee’s comments and ratings are verbally agreed by majority vote.
  • The final rating, the average rating for the School, the eligible members for University Performance Awards and any written feedback are determined by the Director and are not reviewed by the committee.
  • Scores of 1.75 or 2.00 are intended to reflect specific instances of excellent or outstanding performance. Scores of ≤1.0 are intended to reflect instances of minimal performance or performance that needs improvement.

Scholarship

  • In the School of Optometry & Vision, scholarship is evaluated on a two-year window for all faculty.
  • Scholarship areas generally relate to the fields of vision, biomedical, clinical, and/or educational sciences.
  • Innovative clinical or professional practice scholarship includes but is not limited to:
    • Establishing a new clinical service or increasing its scope,
    • Developing new modes of service delivery or assessment, examination or management approaches, particularly those that become models for the profession
    • Curricular developments related to clinical practice or service delivery.
  • Publishing a textbook is considered to be a unique and valuable contribution. Generally, authoring such a textbook is commonly ranked higher than editing. The impact of this text can be indicated either by sales or by numbers of programs adopting the text for use.
  • Posted professional electronic resources are also considered to be a unique and valuable contribution. The impact of these electronic resources, as indicated by downloads, visitors and/or citations can indicate the value of the contribution.
  • Regarding grant support, the competitiveness of the program from which the grant has been received is a factor and the position of principal investigator is weighed most heavily followed by co-investigator status, and then the consultant category. The same criteria apply to contracts.
  • Funding for innovative clinical practice is another indicator of scholarship activity. The position of principal innovator is weighed most heavily, followed by co-innovator status.

Service

  • Any service that enhances the reputation of the University or the School will be valued. Normally, service within the School, the University, optometric organizations and organizations involved in public health, healthcare, education and/or research are preferred (e.g., committee work, appointments, consultancies, accreditation participation).
  • The workload imposed by service positions and the role of the faculty member on committees are considered (e.g., committee chairs are weighted more than committee members; elected positions are weighted more than appointed positions, because they usually require previous service as a means of developing a base of support within an organization); however, if a  faculty member is Chair of a committee with a modest load and few meetings, the impact of  the Chair position on the overall rating would be less than non-Chair service on a more demanding committee.
  • All other things being equal, international positions are ranked above national, and national above local.

Teaching

  • Broadly defined, teaching can involve: classroom, lab, and clinic instruction; individual student consultations; graduate student, post-doctoral fellow (PDF), clinical research fellow (CRF) and resident supervision; and curricular, course and teaching method development.
  • The principal instructor (if there is one) is considered to carry a more significant role than others (e.g., guest lecturers, co-instructors), assuming that they are carrying a major teaching load rather than strictly coordinating the appearance of a series of guest lecturers.
  • Course instructors should indicate the number of hours of the total course time that they taught, rather than a percentage, so that the contribution of co-instructors can be interpreted accurately. Courses with unusual amounts of prep time should be indicated.
  • Invitations from other educational organizations and institutions to teach are valuable contributions to the reputation of the School. A pattern of repeat invitations to lecture from academic or professional organizations will be taken as a qualitative indicator that the person’s teaching is considered to be of high quality. Invitations to lecture on behalf of corporate partners can also be valuable if appropriate conflict of interest guidelines are followed.
  • Evidence of successful innovations in clinical, laboratory or didactic teaching is valued highly.