Mission Statement and Charter for the Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction

Mission

The primary charges of The Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction will be:

1. to keep informed of important trends and commentary upon the evaluation of instruction;
2. to maintain an ongoing sense of how this work is being done at other colleges and universities nationwide; and
3. to oversee the implementation of the best and most suitable practices at The Citadel.

Charter

I. Membership

A. Representation

The Committee on Committees selects one tenured or tenure track faculty member from each school (plus the library) to serve on the committee. Academic faculty membership is restricted to tenured or tenure track faculty members who have been employed at The Citadel for at least one full academic year at the time they begin committee service. In addition to the academic faculty members, the committee shall include one ROTC faculty member selected by the Committee on Committees and two students (one undergraduate, one graduate) appointed by the Provost.

B. Tenure

Academic faculty members serve three year rotating terms, staggered so that at all times two-thirds of the committee have a collective memory of past decisions. All other members of the committee serve one-year terms. An academic faculty member may request a second consecutive term; no faculty member may serve on the committee for more than six years consecutively. If a faculty member cannot complete a term, the Committee on Committees will select another member to fill the un-expired term. Time spent filling the term of another faculty member will not count toward the "six-year rule" outlined above.

II. Structure

A. Chair

The committee shall have a chair selected by committee vote at an organizational meeting held before September 30 of each year. The term of the chair will last until the next election. A member may not serve as committee chair for more than three years consecutively. The chair is responsible for scheduling and presiding over committee meetings, representing the committee before outside bodies, and producing an annual report of committee activities.

B. Subcommittees

The committee may form subcommittees to perform specific tasks.

C. Meetings

The committee must meet at least twice during the academic year, once in the fall and once in the spring. The chair must hold a meeting if requested in writing by at least one-third of the voting members. A quorum consists of one-half the voting membership.

III. Activities

III.1. General Activities of Standing Committees

A. Information

1. a direct request to a college administrative department or activity; an academic department; another standing committee; or any group or association of Citadel faculty, staff, or students;
2. the development and use of questionnaires and surveys;
3. the use of previously published information.

The committee will analyze information by reviewing statistical summaries, by compiling published and written material, or by means of other established methods. The analysis may provide the college with information pertinent to a particular issue, or it may substantiate a recommendation for administrative action. The committee will disseminate information by means of:

1. a response (report) to a department or committee based upon a request for information;
2. reports generated from within the committee;
3. periodic status reports to the college, as specified in its charter.

B. Annual report

The Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction will prepare an annual report summarizing its activities over the previous academic year. The report must include all decisions of the committee, excluding confidential matters. Copies of this report will be made accessible to all Citadel faculty, staff, and students

C. Other reports

The committee is responsible for the timely dissemination of all reports to the Citadel community. Committee reports shall be made available as directed by the Faculty Council. Reports may contain recommendations or proposals. For the purposes of gathering information (see above), all reports are to be considered published information.

D. Tasks

The work of the Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction consists of the series of tasks outlined in Section III (“Activities”) and the recommending of revision and change in content and procedures. It will make such recommendations when its research, surveys, or general judgment indicate that change is needed. The committee assumes tasks through one of the following means:

1. Completion of tasks as articulated in the "Specific Activities" section of this charter;
2. Completion of a report, which includes information requested by an administrative department or activity, an academic department, another committee, the Faculty Council, or the Academic Board. Requests of individual faculty members must be made through the Faculty Council. Students or other individuals may not assign a task to the Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction except through one of the above-mentioned bodies;
3. Note: Tasks can be generated from within the committee. Any committee member may request that the body study a topic or issue within its sphere of interest. The committee may also develop long-range projects or studies as part of its ongoing mission.

III.2. Specific Activities of the Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction

1. Receiving and maintaining a log of concerns and suggestions regarding evaluation of instruction;
2. Reviewing and reporting on aggregate results of student evaluation of instruction;
3. Reviewing periodically analyses and trends in aggregate results of student evaluation of instruction;
4. Reviewing periodically methods used for evaluation of instruction, including those employed by both students and peers;
5. Reviewing periodically student questionnaires used for the purpose of evaluating instruction;
6. Remaining mindful, in its ongoing review of evaluation instruments, of its charge of preventing unfair, harassing, or threatening evaluations;
7. Ensuring the publication of college-wide and departmental norms within their respective contexts.

The committee will remain aware, on an ongoing basis, of the most sound and equitable practices in this field and of the difficulties which academics elsewhere have encountered in working with the evaluation of instruction.

IV. Autonomy

To ensure the efficiency and quality of committee work, the committee is granted a degree of autonomy over its own operations. Upon receiving a request from another college body, the committee will vote to accept or reject the request. A request for information can be rejected for the following reasons:

1. The request is unclear. The committee chair will ask the requesting body to clarify any ambiguities and resubmit the request;
2. The committee's workload is currently too great for it to be able to perform the task in the requested time frame. The chair will return the request and suggest a date for its resubmission;
3. The task falls outside the scope or sphere of interest of the committee. The chair will ask the requesting body either to submit the request to another committee or (if the task falls within the scope of more than one committee) to divide the task between the committees;
4. The committee does not have the resources or the authority to complete the task. The chair will explain which parts of the task cannot be completed, and the requesting body may submit a modified request.

V. Amending the Charter

The Committee on the Evaluation of Instruction may modify its charter in consultation with the Committee on Committees. It will present proposals for changes in its charter to the Committee on Committees, which will then negotiate those changes with the standing committee and with any administrative departments affected. Consensus requests will be forwarded to the Faculty Council for approval. Should there be no consensus, competing proposals may subsequently be referred for consideration to the Faculty Council.

Revised May 2008