Archived Communications Related to COVID-2019

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and Fall 2021

• For all tenure-stream (probationary and tenured) and Limited Term Faculty, FCS will continue to be administered online.
• Information collected through FCS will be available to individual faculty members through the FCS portal for formative purposes and shall not be included in annual reports.
• FCS results for Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and Fall 2021 will not be automatically uploaded to faculty annual reports. Any FCS previously automatically added to the annual report system from Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 will be removed.
• Faculty members may choose to include FCS results in their teaching dossiers for the purposes of tenure and promotion but in no case shall be required to submit FCS results arising out of courses taught during this period of remote instruction. No negative inference will be drawn as a result of their absence.

In reviewing FCS results for the Fall 2020, Winter 2021 and Fall 2021 terms, committees (DECs or FTCs) are strongly encouraged to give consideration to any challenges that may have been imposed by teaching during the pandemic.

Fall 2021

The normal process regarding communications to pre-tenure faculty members as to the number of assessments and the scheduling of these will continue as per the Collective Agreement.

1. In the Fall 2021 term, the pre-tenure faculty member may elect whether or not they wish to have their normally scheduled teaching assessments take place.

a. For the Fall 2021 term, pre-tenure faculty members shall confirm in writing by September 17, 2021, whether or not they wish to have teaching assessments by writing to the Chair of the pre-tenure faculty member’s DEC, who will inform the Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty Affairs.

b. If no election is made by September 17, 2021, the default will be that a teaching assessment(s) shall not be completed for the Fall 2021 term.

2. Pre-tenure faculty members who elect to have their scheduled teaching assessments conducted will also be given the opportunity to elect if they wish to have this teaching assessment(s) as an official assessment that will be included in their Performance and Conduct File.

To facilitate this, when an assessment is completed, the assessor must provide it only to the pre-tenure faculty member within three weeks of the class visit and advise the Chair/Director that the assessment has been completed.

By May 1, 2022 the pre-tenure faculty member must elect in writing to the Chair/Director if they wish one or more of their Fall 2021 assessments to form part of their Performance and Conduct File (PCF). If the pre-tenure faculty member so elects, they will provide the assessments(s) to the Chair/Director who will forward it to the Dean, the RFA and for filing in the PCF.

3. Pre-tenure faculty members who have elected either to waive the normally scheduled assessments under paragraph 1 above will be required to have additional teaching assessment(s) as set out below:

a. Additional teaching assessments to be taken following the resumption of in-person teaching;

b. Additional teaching assessments will occur at least one every term after the resumption of in-person teaching until they reach a minimum of eight assessments; recognizing that there ought to be a minimum of eight teaching assessments over a standard six year probationary period and this number may be adjusted for a shorter probation.

c. Notwithstanding paragraph 3(b), in the exceptional circumstance where a pre-tenure faculty member is being reviewed for tenure in 2021/2022 and is unable to complete the minimum number of 8 teaching assessments, the faculty member shall nevertheless be reviewed for tenure and no adverse inference shall be drawn based on the fact that have fewer than 8 teaching assessments.

4. For the Fall 2021, the pre-tenure faculty and a prospective assessor are strongly encouraged to have a discussion to determine the most appropriate manner to carry out the assessment taking into consideration the mode of delivery.

5. The unavailability of an assessor will not negatively affect the pre-tenure member.

6. Assessors and those reading assessments shall be informed that, while not devaluing excellence in innovation and technology, they ought to be cautious in placing undue weight on technology management where a course has been converted to virtual or remote delivery.

7. In those cases where the assessment was not in an in-person classroom the following statement will be appended to the pre-tenure faculty member’s Fall 2021 Teaching Assessments that are included in their PCF: “This Teaching Assessment is of virtual teaching during the challenging conditions caused by the pandemic and should be viewed in that light. It is understood that the pre-tenure faculty member may not have had the opportunity to demonstrate the normal range of in-person teaching skills.”

Requests for an extension to provide the written assessment beyond three weeks of the class visit can be forwarded to vpfa@torontomu.ca.

If an assessment is elected by a pre-tenure member and is not completed (e.g. an assessor was not available), the Chair of the DEC must write a letter indicating the assessment was not done and the reason why. The letter must be copied to the Chair of Department/Director of the School, the member’s PCF, the Dean, and the RFA.

Absence of this teaching assessment may not be used as grounds for an extension of the probationary period or denial of tenure. No assessments can be conducted in subsequent terms to compensate for this missed assessment; however, the pre-tenure faculty member has the right to request one additional teaching assessment in any given semester.

Communication re LTF In-Class Teaching Assessments for Fall 2021