Posted Feb. 11, 1998 -- Document from 1991
 
Explanatory Note:  The report below was presented to the MFA in May 1991 and was approved by the MFA and forwarded to the FEC.  The recommendations of the report were not implemented by the administration.



 

 REPORT TO THE MEDICAL FACULTY ASSEMBLY

From

Task Force on Evaluation of Administrative Performance

May 3, 1991

The Governance Document of the School of Medicine, the USC Faculty Handbook, and AAUP Policy Documents all indicate that faculty should have a role in the evaluation of departmental chair persons. The regular exercise of this responsibility by the faculty would provide useful input to the Dean, valuable feedback to the chairperson, and an increased sense of participation on the part of the faculty.

The Task Force recommends that a regular procedure be established to obtain evaluations from faculty about the performance of department chairs. In the larger departments this evaluation should also extend to section chiefs, who would be evaluated at the same time as the chair. All paid faculty, both tenure- and nontenure-track, holding primary appointments within a department or section should be permitted to participate in the evaluations of the leadership of that unit.

We recommend use of the attached questionnaire to collect data for the evaluations. It is important to maintain the confidentiality of the respondents and of the information obtained and also to insure that a sufficiently large fraction of the departmental faculty respond to give meaningful results. Toward these ends, we recommend that the questionnaire be returned in an unmarked inner envelope placed within a pre-numbered outer envelope. After separation from the sealed inner envelope, the numbered outer envelope would provide information on which faculty have responded. Follow-up letters could then be sent to non-responders if necessary to obtain a large enough response.

The sealed envelopes containing the completed questionnaires should be opened and tabulated by an independent consultant (possibly an emeritus faculty member or a senior member of the faculty acceptable to both the MFA and the administration.) This person would transmit the results (numerical data and verbatim comments) to the Dean of the School of Medicine. The Dean would then inform the department Chair of the results; and the Chair would inform the Section Chiefs, if applicable. The MFA President would be shown the numerical data but would not retain a copy. The MFA President would then inform the departmental faculty that a review had been completed, but would not disseminate any results. The Dean could make a summary statement to the faculty of the department if he felt it appropriate.

The size of the faculty of the School of Medicine and the number of departments involved make a review of all chairs in a single year impractical. We recommend that departments representing about one-fifth of the paid faculty be reviewed in each year so that all chairs would be reviewed over a five year repeating cycle. In most years this would require fewer than 200 questionnaires, although the review of both the chair and the section chiefs in the Department of Medicine in a single year would involve about 340 questionnaires. We suggest that the order of review be alphabetical by department name. The review of a particular chair could be postponed to a later year in the cycle under some circumstances. Reasons for this delay might include: lack of a regular chair in the department, the planned retirement of the existing chair, or the presence of a recently appointed chair (perhaps within the preceding two or three years). A tentative schedule for the reviews is attached. The MFA should also consider any recommendations that the Dean might have regarding the most appropriate year to review particular department chairs.


Task force members:

Mohammad Akmal, M.D., Medicine
Raul Artal, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynecology
Charles K. Haun, Ph.D., Anatomy and Cell Biology
Margaret Lieb, Ph.D., Microbiology, MFA President (Ex Officio Member)
Julie G. Nyquist, Ph.D., Medical Education
Robert H. Stellwagen, Ph.D., Biochemistry (Task Force Chair)
Nancy E. Warner, M.D., Pathology
 
Attachments:
USC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATORS
 
ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATIVE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FORM

 
Administrator's Name____________________________________ Date__________________

 
Directions:  Please assess the administrator whose name appears above. For each of the six general categories below make an overall assessment of the administrator's skill. Rate as many of the subcategories as are both a) relevant for that administrator and b) for which you personally have sufficient information to judge. Use the key below in making your ratings. Please accompany your ratings with comments.

Key:             5 = Excellent
                    4 = Very Good
                    3 = Adequate
                    2 = Poor
                    1 = Very Poor
                    NA = Not Applicable to this person or No Basis for Judgment
 

1. Administrative Leadership (5 4 3 2 1 NA)

Comments:

 
2. Managerial Effectiveness (5 4 3 2 1 NA)

Comments:

 
3. Personal Leadership and Interaction Skills (5 4 3 2 1 NA)

Comments:

 
4. Academic Leadership (5 4 3 2 1 NA)

Comments:

 
5. Professional Leadership (5 4 3 2 1 NA)

Comments:

 
6. Overall Leadership (5 4 3 2 1 NA)
 
Comments:
 


SUGGESTED SCHEDULE FOR THE REVIEWS
 
 
DEPARTMENT CHAIR No. PAID FACULTY YEAR OF REVIEW
Anat./Cell Biol.  Wood (Interim) 17 Defer
Anesthesiology Viljoen 30 1991
Biochemistry Kedes (Recent Apmt.) 17 Defer to '93
Emergency Medicine Anderson 21 1991
Family Medicine P. Lee (Retiring?) 37 Defer
Medical Education Abrahamson (Retiring) 13 Defer
Medicine Tannen 170 1992
Microbiology Vogt 15 1991
Neurol. Surgery Weiss 6 1991
Neurology Weiner 36 1991
Obstetrics/Gyn. Mishell 55 1991
Ophthalmology Ryan 36 1993
Orthopaedics Sarmiento 27 1993
Otolaryngology Rice 11 1993
Pathology Taylor 81 1993
Pediatrics, CoHos. Baehner 37 1994
Pediatrics, CHLA Baehner 118 1994
Pharm./Nutrition Bessman (Retiring) 10 Defer
Physiol./Biophys. Marsh 15 1994
Preventive Medicine Pike 44 1995
Psych./Behav. Sci. Sloane 57 1995
Radiation Oncology Petrovich 16 1995
Radiology Halls 48 1995
Surgery DeMeester 23 1995
Urology Skinner 15 1995
 
SUMMARY

 

YEAR 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Unspecified
DEPTS. 6 1 5 2 6 4
FACULTY 163 170 172 170 203 77