The faculty met yesterday to discuss, among other extant matters, a proposal to introduce a system for evaluating the teaching of tenured faculty. President Tony Marx also announced the names of those who will be presented with honorary degrees from the College at this year's Commencement. The proposal for faculty evaluations represents a response to recommendations made by the Committee for Academic Priorities (CAP) in a report last January. These recommendations, in turn, mentioned as a subject of concern that "Amherst is almost alone [among the members of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges] in not requiring teaching evaluations of all its faculty."

Each tenured faculty member, if the proposal succeeds, will undertake an evaluation of his or her teaching in three courses every three years. The proposal advises that the process of evaluating a professor should be centered on conversations with Teaching Instruction Partners (TIPs), which are drawn from the pool of tenured faculty in other departments. Although student evaluations will constitute an integral part of the conversations between a TIP and the professor under evaluation, it is projected that the TIP's personal observations will constitute the system's greatest advantage.

The evaluation system promises to be "minimally intrusive," and largely self-monitored. It emerged during the discussion that no formal monitoring mechanisms will accompany the proposed system, and that professors will be expected, rather than compelled, to evaluate their teaching.

In response to the proposal, several faculty members questioned the necessity and the value of making the system mandatory. There appeared to be underlying sentiment among at least some faculty members that the proposal implied professors cannot be trusted to engage in dialogue with one another about pedagogic matters. Other queries raised concerned various operative aspects of the evaluation system. As the discussion expanded, the motion was taken by the faculty to continue the debate in the next meeting of the faculty.

Marx also took the opportunity to announce honorary degree recipients for 2007. Included in the list were Joel Klein, Marilynne Robinson, Axel Schupf '57 and His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun. Both Robinson and Schupf have close ties to the College. Schupf, an alumnus, was co-chair of The Amherst College Campaign, which raised $269 million for the College, an amount 34 percent greater than the original target. Robinson, in addition to winning the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her book "Gilead," was also a visiting professor at the College. Klein is the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, while Zen is the Bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Hong Kong.

The faculty will next convene for general discussion on May 18.