Annual Faculty Performance Evaluation System (FPES)

Evaluation Period: The evaluation period for the 2024-25 annual faculty evaluation is from July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025. 

1. Who is evaluated? All full-time and part-time faculty members within your unit must receive an evaluation. This includes the full-time faculty (i.e., faculty holding tenure, probationary tenure-track, non-tenured renewable term, and full-time temporary appointments) and the part-time faculty (adjuncts). Note also that faculty who were on leave or sabbatical for part of the year must receive an evaluation. Faculty members who were on leave or sabbatical for the entire academic year do not complete an evaluation.
2. Evaluation Platform: A Reminder: The Annual Faculty Evaluations are conducted in Faculty Success-Faculty Performance Evaluation System (FS-FPES). All faculty in all Schools and Colleges must use FS-FPES to complete the annual evaluation. Further, as a reminder, information in Faculty Success on faculty accomplishments is relied upon to determine awards and recognitions.

3. Evaluation Areas and Criteria: Faculty are evaluated using a variety of criteria in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service, as determined by the nature of the faculty appointment, FPES criteria adopted by the school/college, the school/college bylaws, the Faculty Handbook, and, where applicable, collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). These performance reviews are intended to promote faculty development; hence, faculty performance evaluations, especially full-time faculty--should include discussion of any professional development activities.

• Full-Time Faculty: Tenure-line faculty are evaluated in teaching, scholarship (including research and creative works), and service. Other full-time faculty are on the Clinical Educator track, Research track, Career Status track like Master Instructors in COAS and SOC, or Legal Writing Instructors in the School of Law are primarily evaluated on those activities that are the focus of the position, e.g., Research track evaluation focuses on Research and not likely to include teaching or Lecturers/instructors are focused on teaching and not on research or scholarship.   
• Part-Time Faculty: Most part-time (or adjunct) faculty members’ primary assignment is teaching (this includes clinical adjunct faculty), and therefore, they are to be evaluated only in that category. However, part-time faculty with a primary assignment in research are evaluated in that category.

4. Collective Bargaining Agreements: Note that there are two bargaining units for faculty at Howard University that are a part of SEIU, Local 500 and are both covered by collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).
   • One bargaining unit is focused on adjunct or part-time faculty for the following Schools and Colleges: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fine Arts, School of Business, School of Communications, School of Divinity, School of Education, College of Engineering and Architecture, School of Social Work, and the Graduate School.
   • The other bargaining unit is referred to as the Non-Tenure Track (NTT) faculty and that collective bargaining agreement only covers the following Schools and Colleges: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fine Arts, College of Engineering and Architecture, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Social Work, and the Graduate School.  Faculty who are lecturers and Master Instructors (College of Arts and Sciences and School of Communications) are included in this bargaining unit.
   • The recently negotiated CBAs do not alter or change the way the faculty evaluation process is currently conducted at Howard University. Therefore, department Chairs and Deans can conduct their reviews of these faculty using the same criteria and process as those used for non-union faculty. 

5. Faculty Self-Evaluation: From June 26, 2025 – July 13, 2025, the faculty members complete their Faculty Self-Evaluation. The Faculty Self-Evaluation in Faculty Success, which includes the Faculty Workplan for the 24-25 evaluation period, updated CV (can be automatically generated in Faculty Success or uploaded CV that should reflect the same information in your Faculty Success profile), Faculty Activity Report (automatically generated), Student Course Evaluations(automatically inserted in Faculty activity Report and if not then faculty member can attach),  and any other attachments (optional for faculty members). The submission deadline for faculty is July 13, 2025. Note that automated generation of a CV in Faculty Success is contingent on faculty members entering their information into the activities section of Faculty Success. Finally, the information on scholarly accomplishments and research in Faculty Success is relied on to select faculty for the annual Faculty Scholar awards.

Initiating the Annual Faculty Evaluation: See below the message that each faculty member will receive from Watermark and guidance on the best way to sign on to sign into Faculty Success.

You have been sent an FPES (Faculty Performance Evaluation System) Application in Faculty Success.  Please follow the directions below for logging into Faculty Success.  You will find the application in your Workflow Inbox.  Consider emailed links notifications- please follow the process below for best results when logging in.

Faculty Success uses the Howard Single Sign On (SSO) process, so we strongly recommend you sign on with your howard.edu account before proceeding.  The easiest way to do this is:

• Open your browser (Chrome is preferred)
• Go to the Howard University Provost’s website and select Faculty Success from the Quick Links section (clicking the link in this step will take you there automatically).
• Scroll down the Faculty Success page to the Faculty Success Login icon.
• This will walk you through the Howard Single Sign On (SSO) process.

Once you have authenticated your Howard ID, you will automatically be logged into Faculty Success.  

To locate your application, click on Workflow at the top of the screen and you will see your application in the Inbox. Click on the link to begin the application process.

6.            Workplans: The 2024-25 Workplans submitted by the faculty member in September 2024 to the department Chair or Dean shall be uploaded to FS-FPES. If a faculty member did not submit a workplan to the department chair or Dean, then the faculty member provides a brief explanation why there is no workplan under the heading “workplan” in Faculty Success. 

7.            Faculty Activity Report: Throughout the academic year, faculty are encouraged to regularly enter their activities in Faculty Success for the current evaluation period, July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. But faculty can still input their activities in their Faculty Success profile in preparation for the annual evaluation until Monday, July 13, 2025. Note that for Faculty Success to automatically generate a Faculty Success Report and a CV, faculty members must enter their information in the activities section of Faculty Success.

8.           Student Course Evaluations for spring courses were posted and available in Watermark Faculty Success on Monday, May 13, 2024. Make sure faculty members include their student course evaluations as part of the Faculty Self-Evaluation. Note that student course evaluations are automatically linked within the Faculty Activity Report. There is also an option for faculty to upload the student course evaluation in case the student course evaluation is not uploaded in Faculty Success. 

9.         The Faculty Self-Evaluation is forwarded automatically to the department Chair or to the Dean (in Schools without departments) in FS-FPES if the faculty member has not already clicked the submit button by the deadline. Once the Faculty Self-Evaluation moves forward, there is no opportunity to retrieve and complete the online Self-Evaluation. Complete your Faculty Self-Evaluation form and add any attachments by July 13, 2025.

10.        The department Chair completes an evaluation of a full-time faculty member in FS-FPES and is urged to meet with the faculty member to discuss this evaluation on or before August 29, 2025. This cycle, a full-time faculty member may choose not to meet with the Department Chair if the faculty member is satisfied with the evaluation. The Department Chair, however, should meet with tenure track faculty eligible for a third-year review or where issues in the faculty member’s evaluation need to be discussed. 

 If the faculty member refuses to participate in the evaluation by, for example, failing to submit materials about 2024-25 faculty activities, then the Chair should complete the evaluation anyway. The faculty evaluation takes place with or without the cooperation of the faculty member. 

If the faculty member is an adjunct or part-time faculty member, then a meeting will only be held if requested by the faculty member. Otherwise, the Department Chair may complete the evaluation and send it to the part-time faculty member for review and acknowledgment of receipt of the evaluation. 

11.         In Schools without departments, the Dean completes an evaluation of the faculty member in FS-FPES, and the Dean is urged to meet with the full-time faculty member to discuss this evaluation on or before August 29, 2025.  In this evaluation cycle, a faculty member may choose not to meet with the Dean if the faculty member is satisfied with the evaluation. The Dean, however, should meet with tenure track faculty eligible for a third-year review or where issues in the faculty member’s evaluation must be discussed. 

If the faculty member refuses to participate in the evaluation by, for example, failing to submit materials about 2024-25 faculty activities, then the Dean should complete the evaluation anyway. The faculty evaluation takes place with or without the cooperation of the faculty member. 

If the faculty member is an adjunct or part-time faculty member, then a meeting will only be held if requested by the faculty member. Otherwise, the Dean (in Schools or Colleges without Departments) may complete the evaluation and send it to the part-time faculty member for review and acknowledgment of receipt of the evaluation. 

12.         Faculty Performance Evaluation Meetings: If a faculty member is meeting with either the Department Chair or the Dean (in schools without Departments) to discuss their annual evaluation, then that meeting may be in-person, in Teams or Zoom or by phone. Again, the deadline for Chairs and Deans to complete these meetings if they take place, is August 29, 2025.

13. Faculty Response without a meeting: Each faculty member will receive an evaluation from the Department Chair or Dean (in those Schools without Departments), and the communication will ask if a meeting is requested or not. If not, then the faculty member should complete the rest of the form with the faculty member’s electronic signature acknowledging an evaluation was received and reviewed by the faculty member. If the faculty member disagrees in whole or in part with the evaluation, there is also space provided in this FS-FPES form for a written rebuttal. Faculty FS-FPES Faculty Responses due: August 22, 2025, or September 2,2025, for all Schools/Colleges.  The Faculty Response automatically moves forward to the Department Chair or the Dean (in Schools without Departments) after the deadline whether or not the faculty member has provided a response. 

14.        Faculty Response after a meeting:  If the faculty member met with the Department Chair or Dean (in Schools or Colleges without Departments) then the faculty member should indicate on the form that a meeting was requested and send in the completed form after the meeting. The faculty member is acknowledging in FS-FPES that the meeting was held. The faculty member’s electronic signature is an acknowledgement that the evaluation took place. If the faculty member disagrees in whole or in part with the evaluation, there is also space provided in this FS-FPES form for a written rebuttal. Faculty FS-FPES Faculty Responses due: September 2, 2025, for all Schools/Colleges.  The Faculty Response automatically moves forward to the Department Chair or the Dean (in Schools without Departments) after this deadline whether or not the faculty member has provided a response. 

16. In FS-FPES, Chairs and Deans review the Faculty Response, including, where applicable, the faculty member’s written rebuttal. Chairs and Deans may provide additional comments on this FS-FPES form. If a faculty member fails to e-sign the evaluation in FS-FPES, then the Chair/Dean will indicate on this form that the evaluation was sent to and if a meeting was held, also discussed with the faculty member, but no signature was received from the faculty member. 

Department Chairs shall submit their response forms to the Dean through FS-FPES no later than September 9, 2025. The same deadline is used for all evaluations, whether full-time or part-time faculty. 

All Deans shall submit their response forms to the Office of the Provost through FS-FPES no later than September 30, 2025. Again, the same deadline is used for all evaluations whether full-time or part-time faculty. This deadline applies to Deans in Schools and Colleges with and without Departments. 

17.        If you have questions related to this memorandum or the evaluation process, then send an email to Faculty Success Helpdesk (facultysuccess@howard.edu).

18.         You may review and download these guidelines at https://provost.howard.edu/annualFPES.