PERSONNEL EVALUATION. At Nevada State University, the process for determining whether or not a professor receives tenure is based on a combination of qualitative evaluations and a quantitative formula derived by using linear programming. The process works as follows.
In an Annual Personnel File (APF), the professor submits evidence of his or her (1) teaching effectiveness, (2) research performance, (3) other professional activities, and (4) on-campus professional service. A personnel committee of three evaluators (who are full professors) independently evaluate the professor’s file and assign a numerical rating between 0 and 1 0 0 to each of the four categories.
For each category, the scores from the three evaluators are averaged together to give a single score for that category. To determine the maximum overall score for the professor, a linear program is used for selecting the best weights (percentages) to assign to each category, satisfying the following university criteria.
• Teaching must be weighted at least as heavily as any other category.
• Research must be weighted at least 25%.
• Teaching plus research must be weighted at least 75%.
• Teaching plus research must be weighted no more than 90%.
• Service is to be weighted at least as heavily as professional activities.
• Professional activities must be weighted at least 5%.
• The total of the weights must be 100%.
Professor Anna Sung is up for tenure. To receive tenure, she must receive a weighted total score of at least 85. The three personnel committee members evaluated Anna as follows: