Faculty undergo several types of performance assessments throughout their career. Faculty members most rigorous assessments relate to tenure. Tenure procedures at UMSL require a departmental committee to review probationary faculty annually until they attain tenure. Probationary faculty can be terminated at the end of any academic year if the department determines that they are not making adequate progress toward tenure. The tenure standards are high and hold for faculty at all University of Missouri campuses.
Department chairs also annually review the performance of each faculty member. The outcome of that review normally relates to salary, but they also constitute data for five-year post-tenure reviews.
Some of the data used for assessing faculty performance come from course evaluations. The university's policy states, "Student evaluations of every section of every credit-bearing course with six or more students enrolled are to be conducted each semester, including all summer sessions. All evaluations must include a question concerning the competency of the instructor in spoken English." The Center for Teaching and Learning has several resources to help faculty enhance their teaching and improve their course evaluations.
