Subject: this is the electronic copy of what I gave Regent Wynn

Date: Friday 19 March 2004 12:00 pm

From: elizabeth.behrman@wichita.edu

To: "cofsp-l" <cofsp-l@listproc.cc.ku.edu>

CoFSP Statement of principles on CEO evaluation

We appreciate the openness of the Board to the possibility of faculty input to CEO evaluations, for four reasons:

1) Any scholar, and probably any successful businessman or lawyer, knows the importance of having more than one measurement of the data. It is a shaky hypothesis indeed in any field that has support only from one source.

2) If, as we believe, it is true that there are significant faculty concerns at some of the Regents institutions, the Board should *want* to know about these, just as the Chair of a depar7ment or even a dean should know (and *does* know) if there are significant student concerns about one of her faculty members. Even if there are not significant concerns, we believe that evaluation of administrators, including CEOs, should be routine, as routine as is student evaluation of faculty. Like student evaluation of teaching, faculty evaluation of administrators can contribute positively to the development of the university.

Indeed, 3) AAUP guidelines, which are cited by the Association of Governing Boards on their website, support the evaluation by faculty of all administrators, including CEOs, at a minimum of every three years.

4) We believe it would also be a significant and CHEAP way to improve faculty morale.

--

Elizabeth Behrman

Professor and Chair

Department of Physics

Wichita State University

Wichita, KS 67260-0032

(316) 978-6460, (316) 978-5224

FAX (316) 978-3350

http://webs.wichita.edu/physics/behrman/behr.htm