“In addition to getting the promotion and tenure binders streamlined, it was helpful for the accuracy of our data. No more drawers full of flyers and papers that we accumulate all year, then spend a week or two before the deadline compiling an updated CV. If we keep up our data on activities, it’s there and we can use it in multiple reports.”
Tim Howard
Vice Provost – Columbus State University
Static binders don’t tell the whole story of a faculty member navigating the promotion and tenure process. They simply describe a person’s academic story and their career path at a specific point in time. “The first year I was at Columbus State University, someone rolled a cart full of binders into my office,”said Dr. Deborah Bordelon, Provost and Executive Vice President, “I knew we needed to move into a more dynamic and electronic process.”
Binders weren’t the only problem. “We were having a hard time getting accurate information about faculty achievements, publications, and grants,” said Dr. Tim Howard, Vice Provost. They would have drawers full of flyers and papers that had accumulated all year. “It would take a week or two before the deadline to compile and update faculty CVs,” Howard said.
Feedback from deans, associate deans, chairs, faculty, and IT staff led Columbus State to choose Faculty Success (formerly Digital Measures) in March 2020. The university had planned a soft launch of the platform in spring 2020 involving about eight faculty members, but when the pandemic forced faculty and staff to work off-site, they decided to include all faculty members applying for a promotion or tenure.
They rolled out Faculty Success to the department chairs in May 2020 and faculty in July 2020. The university provided training to all the colleges, consisting of individual consulting Zoom meetings scheduled at the convenience of the faculty members.
The platform offers quick customization to support unique needs for departments and colleges. Users can highlight the work of a particular faculty member, department, college, or the whole university.
With a final decision to go with Faculty Success in March 2020 and promotion and tenure packages due on August 21, 2020, the team was able to get faculty using the system quickly.
The team has received informative and positive feedback from faculty, chairs, and deans. So far, 30 out of 31 faculty members up for tenure and promotion have embraced the platform.
“Spring promotion and tenure was a great opportunity for us to move fully into Faculty Success because the restrictions of the pandemic meant we could not move forward with binders,” said Bordelon. “We needed that electronic platform to access and review the materials remotely.”
Faculty liked that they could generate a rapid report by clicking a button, and it’s easy to use for annual reviews and faculty evaluations. “If we keep our data on our activities,” said Howard, “it’s all there, and we can use it in multiple reports.”
The university has extended its use of Faculty Success to capture graduate faculty applications, which are renewed every three years, and plans to use it for internal grants in the future. A strong legacy, a stronger future.
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