I hear the FAR is dead.... - USM Forum -- Message Board

truth4usmAH · Status: Offline

I hear the FAR is dead....

LVN · Status: Offline

I heard that too. Good news.

Curmudgeon · Status: Offline

It was largely a mechanism for spying on enemies of the realm, and only a few "select" individuals ever had them read. Printed out, they would approach 5000 pages. Now that there is no longer an enemies list, the FAR has outlived its usefulness. A good president understands such things.

Farside · Status: Offline

As we who were around in the sixties (& can remember them) would say:

Far out, man!

Reporter · Status: Offline

October 17, 2007

Dr. Bobby Middlebrooks

Provost

Dear Dr. Middlebrooks:

On several occasions since your appointment you and I have conversed about the Faculty Activity Report (FAR) and whether it serves any clear purpose at the present time.

Recent discussions with both Dr. Powell and you suggest that it is difficult to determine, with any precision, whether there is a reasonable correspondence between the data on faculty activity the FAR collects and the data needed for reporting purposes. Anecdotal evidence intimates that once FAR data is collected, it is almost never used as a resource for reporting.

Discussion at the Senate meeting on October 5, 2007 reconfirmed the Senates skepticism about whether the use of the FAR justifies the time spent by each faculty member in filling it out. Senators, speaking on behalf of faculty constituents, continued to question whether the FAR is needed or whether the data it is intended to collect can be handled in a less burdensome way.

At the October 5 meeting, a number of senators expressed concern that this unresolved issue leaves faculty unable to determine whether to begin to log in FAR data or to wait until a determination is made about the future of the FAR.

Acting in accordance with the will of my colleagues in the senate and on behalf of the faculty of the university, I request that the FAR be suspended for the 2007-08 academic year. During that period, administration and faculty can work to 1) determine the minimum amount of data on faculty activity it would be most useful to collect for reporting purposes and 2) what form of collection it would be most practical to implement.

I acknowledge that it may be possible that some of the data the FAR is intended to collect may be needed to fulfill an unforeseen need for information. I am confident that the senate would agree to work with the administration to determine a mechanism to collect data which cannot be supplied through other reporting means, including annual faculty evaluations. This might include some temporarily modified version of the present FAR.

This action, at this time, would represent a triumph of good sense over a practice that, as it now stands, fulfils no clear purpose for either faculty or administration.

Best wishes,

Stephen Judd, President

CC: Dr. Amy Young, Dr. Stephen Oshrin, Dr. Stanley Hauer