Annual Performance Reviews

• February 3, 2025: Suggested deadline for faculty to submit annual review materials to chairs and directors
• March 3, 2025: Suggested deadline to solicit annual review letters for faculty supported through Discovery Themes (DT) funding from DT focus area leaders
• April 4, 2025: Deadline for fourth-year review dossiers for assistant professors and clinical/teaching/practice and research faculty reappointments to be submitted to the college
• April 28, 2025: Suggested target date for completing annual review meetings
• May 30, 2025: Deadline to report any non-renewals of assistant professors to the Office of Academic Affairs (non-renewals require a Fourth Year Review process)
• July 11, 2025: Deadline for copies of annual reviews for all assistant, associate, and full professors to be submitted to the college (except fourth-year reviews)

At a minimum, all faculty members must report on activities conducted in the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 (see important dates section for recommended dates), and provide an updated CV.

Assistant professors are expected to maintain a cumulative core dossier and to submit that dossier as part of the annual review. The core dossier template that can be used for the annual review is provided in the Annual Activity Report Template section below. ALL annual reviews of assistant professors include the full set of information that is reported in the core dossier.

Associate and full professors are required to submit information about teaching and advising; curriculum and course development; publications and scholarly presentations; funding/grants; outreach and service; and honors and awards. In general, this information mirrors the categories that are on the core dossier outline for promotion and tenure reviews. A template using this outline is available below. Units may adapt this template in line with departmental Appointments, Promotion and Tenure (APT) policies and practices as long as the basic information is included. Associate professors who are planning for promotion may also submit a cumulative core dossier, to assist in evaluation of progress toward promotion; specific details about screening processes in individual departments and schools are spelled out in their respective APT documents.

• To review and follow the procedures for annual review outlined in the unit’s APT document.
• To issue a call to the faculty to submit annual review materials in time to meet the deadlines above. See targeted deadline in important dates section.
• To meet with each faculty member and write an annual review letter that evaluates the performance over the past year and gives guidance about future goals, and, in the case of assistant and associate professors, about progress toward tenure and/or promotion. A designee (e.g., the chair of the departmental promotion and tenure committee) may provide a review letter and carry out the face-to-face meeting as long as the chair provides a finalized signed review letter.*
• In cases where the faculty has joint appointments, to consult with the head of the other unit (or Discovery Theme Focus Area leader, as appropriate) in line with existing MOUs and unit APT documents.
• To remind faculty members that they have the opportunity to comment in writing on the review.
• To maintain the review letter and any comments in the faculty member’s departmental personnel file.

*Annual review letters should not merely be descriptive summaries of an individual’s activities in a given year; they should evaluate the individual’s performance in relation to the unit’s mission, assigned workload, previously articulated goals for that individual, and specific expectations for the coming year. The annual review letter should also describe, when appropriate, actions the unit or its head will undertake to support the faculty member in achieving goals.  The college expects that the full range of activities individual faculty are asked to undertake will be formally recognized and, when done well, rewarded.

For 2024-2025, units may use either the new ASC Core Dossier Outline (recommended) or the older Core Dossier (Vita) Template for annual activity reporting. As noted below, this will be the last year either template will be in use. The selected template can be edited or modified by chairs and directors to include other information as long as it covers the general categories included in the file. Activities should be listed for the period Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 of the current year. 

Optional Questions

1. Anything else the chair/director should know?
2. Questions specific to the discipline?

Starting in 2025-2026, annual activity reporting will transition to the Interfolio FAR system and faculty will be required to enter activities for calendar year 2025 via FAR. Faculty have access to the system starting summer 2024 and are encouraged to start entering activities as soon as possible in preparation for this change. Further guidance will be forthcoming. Please contact ascfacultyaffairs@osu.edu with any questions or visit OAA's Interfolio FAR website for more information. 

Within six months of date of hire, a face-to-face meeting of the faculty member, TIU head, and DT focus area leader will establish goals and expectations. A document summarizing this discussion, co-signed by all three, should be included in the faculty member’s personnel file and as an appendix to the annual review letter (see below). The annual review letters then become part of the dossier for fourth year reviews and tenure and/or promotion reviews.

The annual review process for DT faculty members in ASC will proceed as follows (with the exception of probationary assistant professors undergoing their fourth year review):

1. February 1: deadline for faculty member to submit annual activity report to the department
2. March 1: deadline for TIU head to send the annual report to and solicit written input from the DT focus area leader on whether the faculty member’s performance aligns with the stated goals and expectations (attach statement of goals to solicitation)
3. March 29: deadline for DT leader to provide written feedback to TIU head
4. June 28: deadline to upload copies of annual review letters to the college via department folders in Teams designated for this purpose. As they write their annual reviews, chairs and directors should take into consideration the comments of the DT faculty leaders, whether written or oral. In addition, chairs and directors should append to their own review letters:
   1. any written input from the DT focus leader (letter or e-mail); and
   2. the goals and expectation document.
5. All three documents should be sent by the chair to the faculty member; retained in the faculty member’s personnel file; and uploaded as a single file into the appropriate Annual Review folder in the department's folder on Teams.
6. ASC will check annual review files submitted to the college, and if no DT input is included, the associate dean will send a final request to the DT focus area leader. No response from the DT focus area leader will be considered a positive review.

The annual review for DT faculty members in ASC who are in the 4^th year review process will follow a modified schedule:

1. February 1: deadline for faculty member to submit core dossier to the department
2. February 15: deadline for TIU head to send the core dossier to and solicit written input from the DT focus area leader on whether the faculty member’s performance aligns with the stated goals and expectations; the solicitation letter should be included in the core dossier as verification that input was solicited if no written input is received
3. March 1: suggested deadline for DT focus area leader to provide written feedback to TIU head for inclusion in the core dossier (placed in the Internal Review Evaluation section 2.3, now placed at near the end of the dossier); date can be adjusted as needed to align with scheduled meetings of the eligible faculty
4. March 29: deadline for submission of fourth year dossiers to ASC
5. ASC will check annual review files submitted to the college, and if no DT input is included, will send a final request to the DT focus area leader. No response from the DT focus area leader will be considered a positive review.