Peer-Review Team
When a new tenure-track faculty member comes to Berea College (at the latest by the beginning of the second semester of the first year), the Division Chair, in consultation with the new faculty member, constitutes a Peer-Review Team of not more than five faculty from Berea College, including faculty from the department, if applicable, the division, as well as outside the division if desirable. Most teams will include the Division Chair and the Department Chair. Peer-Review Team members should not be composed of faculty colleagues who are also concurrently serving in the role of Mentor (see Confidential Formative Mentoring) to the candidate. Only in rare cases, and with approval from the Dean of Faculty in consultation with the candidate, should a former Mentor serve as a Peer-Review Team member. Teams may or may not meet as a group during the course of a review period. The primary purpose of the team is to provide peer perspectives on the tenure-track faculty member’s work and development in teaching, scholarship/creative work, advising, and service, particularly in the form of concrete input for the Division Chair’s letter to the Faculty Status Council for probationary reviews. The specific role a Peer-Review Team member plays in the process (e.g., focus on teaching vs. focus on scholarship/creative work; focus on all parts undergoing review, etc.) will be determined in conversation with the probationary faculty member and the Division Chair. The Division Chair’s letter should be shared confidentially with Peer-Review Team members. Peer-Review Team members should also share their observations about a tenure-track faculty member’s work directly with that faculty colleague as they collect these observations, and they may also offer some advice in relation to that feedback. For example, after a class observation, it is always good practice to write up notes for the colleague and to sit down for a conversation about those observations. Although Peer-Review Team members are not primarily charged with mentoring, they are encouraged to provide information, feedback, context, and their own perspective on the probationary faculty member’s work directly to that faculty member in an ongoing dialogue to the degree possible. Division Chairs may take on a significant advising function. Best-practice protocols and guidelines to help guide observations and assessments are available from the Center for Teaching and Learning. Over the course of a probationary appointment, Peer-Review Team membership may change as a result of consultations among the probationary faculty member, the team, Division Chair, and/or the Dean of Faculty.
At tenure review, the candidate’s Peer-Review Team and, where applicable, the Department Chair, assist the Division Chair in developing a comprehensive, evaluative letter. This assistance may include, but not be limited to: consultation, review of scholarship/creative work and other materials related to the College’s Tenure Review Standards, classroom observations, student interviews, and review of student evaluations (IEQs) and/or alumni surveys. Once the Division Chair has drafted the letter, each member of the Peer-Review Team and Department Chair, where applicable, receives a copy. Any member of the Team or the Department Chair, where applicable, who feels that one’s contributions are not adequately addressed in the letter is encouraged to write an additional letter and submit it to the candidate’s file.