Topics of discussion include the purposes of faculty evaluation, the importance of clarity of purpose, and whether or not faculty evaluation results in more productive faculty. Contains 7 references. As institutional constraints and calls for increased accountability continue into the decade of the 1990s in colleges and universities, faculty evaluation programs need reexamining to see how they fit with institutional purposes of evaluation. An assessment of practices of evaluation also should help determine a program's effectiveness in promoting faculty development and productivity. To provide adequate and unbiased evaluation programs, administrators must involve faculty members in the process of determining the evaluation's purpose, as well as its scope, sources of data, participants, and assessment of effectiveness.
Vitality refers to the faculty member's ability and interest in continuing to grow.
The author observes that this is an increasing phenomenon in light of the advancing ages of professors at most institutions and decreasing job mobility. Disagreement in the literature centers on whether one evaluation program can serve both to improve performance and to help in personnel decisions. The argument is that both purposes cannot be served by one system. Nonetheless, Miller cautions, despite the need to find ways to improve faculty performance, institutions should not consider substituting one program that tries to combine both functions. It was found that most faculty members perceived evaluation in different terms than administrators.