Whereas, individual faculty members at UAH are evaluated by their supervisors in the areas of teaching, research, and service by means of a scale introduced last year with the new Faculty Activity Reports; and

Whereas, the scale ranks performance by use of the terms "Exceptional Performance," "Above Expectations," "Meets Expectations," "Below Expectations," and "Unacceptable Performance;" and

Whereas, the inclusion of these terms on a chart (to be filled out by a supervisor) suggests that this instrument seeks to convey a more quantitative measure of the faculty member's performance than the narrative evaluations of previous years; and

Whereas, there is currently no interpretive consensus about the significance of these various terms--for example, while "meets expectations" could well be understood to represent a positive judgment, from its position on the chart it might also indicate mediocre, i.e., substandard performance;

Therefore, be it resolved that:
if this new scale is to become part of the faculty member's regular annual evaluation, each department be required to write a statement outlining faculty expectations within that department, which also clarifies the significance of each point on the scale in terms of such considerations as tenure, promotion, and salary increases. This written statement will be attached to the Faculty Activity Report.