Judgment of Compliance

Narrative

Sam Houston State University evaluates the effectiveness of its administrators, including the Chief Executive Officer, on a periodic basis.

Evaluation of the President
As provided for by Chapter IV, Presidents of the Components, Section 7, Evaluation, of the Rules and Regulations of The Texas State University System [1], specifically Subsection 7.1, “The Chancellor shall review annually the general performance and effectiveness of each President, presenting to the Board his or her written opinions, advice, and recommendations as to the President’s employment, subsequent to which the Board shall meet with the Chancellor and the President being evaluated.” Subsequent to joining Sam Houston State University in 2002, President Gaertner has been evaluated in this manner by the Board of Regents once a year [2] [3].

Evaluation of Administrative Officers and Administrators
As provided for by Chapter IV, Presidents of the Components, Section 7, Evaluation, of the Rules and Regulations of The Texas State University System [4], “The Presidents of the Components shall periodically evaluate the effectiveness of all administrative officers who report directly to them and establish procedures for the evaluation of the effectiveness of all other administrators.” At Sam Houston State University, this occurs annually. Administrative officers are defined under Chapter V, Component Personnel, Section 1, Component Employees [5], as “…Vice Presidents, Deans and other administrative personnel with delegated executive authority as determined by the President.”

All Vice Presidents and Deans are considered staff. The Staff Evaluation System at Sam Houston State University is governed by Human Resources Policy ER-6 [6]. According to this policy, the purpose of evaluation is: “To establish a systematic staff evaluation system for staff employees utilizing an annual merit review process that will serve as a basis for merit pay increases, employee development, and promotion decisions necessary to develop and maintain an effective and efficient staff workforce.” The policy, in-part, declares that administrative employees are annually reviewed using the Annual Merit Review (AMR) forms [7] to ensure that the “University’s performance standards, evaluation criteria and appraisal process complies with the applicable regulations of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and related federal laws.”

The President of Sam Houston State University meets with each of his Vice Presidents on an annual basis to provide them with an oral evaluation of their year’s work. The President conducts this evaluation of the Provost, and the Vice-Presidents based on selected indicators found in the annual Benchmarks/Performance Indicators Report [8] generated by the Office of Institutional Research.

Vice Presidents, in turn, evaluates all administrators under their direct supervision. For example, the Provost conducts annual reviews for all of the Academic Deans and Associate Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs using the Annual Merit Review [7] forms [9] [10] [11]. All Academic Deans review the Associate and Assistant Deans annually using the Annual Merit Review forms and the departmental chairs, using the Chair Evaluation form [12].

While not part of the formal evaluation process, the University Faculty Senate conducts an annual survey of faculty perceptions of University programs and personnel, including administrators. These are used by individual administrators in self-assessment . Survey results, providing evaluations on a 5-point scale, are posted on the University Faculty Senate website [13].

Supporting Documentation