Policies, Procedures, and Forms

Academic Guests
Assessment Activities for Academic Departments
Course Evaluations
Faculty Appointments and Reviews
Professional Leaves for Faculty
Faculty Searches
Faculty Travel Pool and Research Pool
Open Access Policy and Read and Publish Agreements
Research Associates and Laboratory Research Associates

Academic Guests

The College is committed to fostering international awareness and understanding through a variety of methods, including the involvement of international visitors in campus activities and events, such as guest lectures, speakers, professors, researchers, entertainers, etc. The Provost's Office in collaboration with The Impact Center are available to assist international guests as they make plans to visit our campus. If your department is inviting an international guest, researcher or scholar to campus, please contact Beth Shepard-Rabadam, Associate Provost  for Administration, at 610-526-5164 or eshepardra@brynmawr.edu. In cooperation with Patricia Lausch, Director, International Student and Scholar Services and Advising in The Impact Center, she will provide assistance in determining the appropriate visa and payment options for foreign nationals invited to campus. Please be aware that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, and Internal Revenue Service regulations govern the entry, visa status, payment and taxation of these individuals. Bryn Mawr College abides by these regulations in all cases.

Assessment Activities for Academic Departments

The College is committed to the continuous improvement of its academic programs. To support faculty in critically evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum Annual Assessment Reports are prepared each Spring and submitted to the Provost's Office. In addition, every ~10 years each Department undergoes a major self-study and external review of their programs facilitated by the Provost's Office. Guidelines are available for preparing the self-study, assembling an external review team, and the sharing the evaluation report. 

Course Evaluations

The purpose of course evaluations is to help faculty members reflect on their teaching effectiveness, to assist in the mentoring process of junior faculty, and to contribute to any review of a faculty member by the Committee on Appointments. All faculty members teaching during the academic year and summer must participate in the course evaluations process.

Course evaluations will be conducted using Course Evaluations and Surveys software accessed via Moodle. Students will be prompted to complete course evaluations via email and Moodle notifications and can click a link in the emails or Moodle to launch the surveys.

Instructors can track real-time response rates by going to Results > Response Rate Tracker from their course evaluation dashboard in Moodle.

After the course evaluation period ends and semester grades have been posted, each instructor will be able to access their course evaluation results via their Moodle dashboard. Bryn Mawr faculty and students can also log directly into the Watermark Course Evaluation and Surveys website using their Bryn Mawr College username and password. Department Chairs will receive evaluation results for interim faculty teaching in their departments via email from the Provost’s Office.

LITS created a Tech Doc for additional support on course evaluations.

Faculty Appointments and Reviews

The Committee on Appointments is charged with making recommendations to the President, on behalf of the Faculty, with regard to the initial appointments, promotion and reappointment of all ranked Faculty and on the appointment and review of Continuing Non-Tenure-Track Faculty. The Faculty Handbook sets forth the participants, responsibilities, timetables and procedures for the initial appointment, reappointment and promotion of continuing members of the faculty. The 'Policies, Procedures, and Guidelines for Review of Candidates for Appointment, Reappointment and Promotion' section of the Faculty Handbook provides an introduction to the review process at Bryn Mawr. It provides step-by-step processes for each type of review, and itemizes and describes the standard components of a review (e.g. candidate's dossier, student evaluation process, departmental review process, outside review and reviewers).

Professional Leaves for Faculty

The College's program of professional leaves for continuing members of the faculty reflects a strong institutional commitment to faculty scholarship and to the relationship between research and teaching. Learn more. 

Faculty Searches

Departments or programs that would like to request a tenure track and/or continuing non-tenure track position should consult the Committee on Academic Priorities (CAP) web page for the Guidelines. CAP must approve tenure track and continuing non-tenure track positions. Interim positions must be approved by the Provost in the annual department staffing letter. After receiving approval, departments and programs must follow the College's faculty search procedures:

• Procedures for Tenure Track and Continuing Non-Tenure Track (CNTT) Searches
• Procedures for Interim Faculty Searches
• Information on Recruitment and Hiring of a Diverse Faculty

Search Committees using Interfolio to manage a faculty search can find additional information and support here. 

Faculty Travel Pool and Research Pool

The Faculty Travel Pool and Faculty Research Pool are Bryn Mawr College programs that supports the scholarly development of faculty members on continuing appointment in tenure track, tenured, and Continuing Non-Tenure Track (CNTT) positions and on continuing appointment in the Athletics and Physical Education department. Learn more. 

Open Access Policy & Read and Publish Agreements

The Faculty of Bryn Mawr College is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, in 2013 the Faculty adopted the Open Access Policy. Faculty authors who publish articles in some journals can make their articles immediately open access through the journal sites, without paying an APC (article processing charge). LITS subscriptions to these journals are now "read and publish agreements" (also called "transformative agreements"), which help to shift library subscription payments toward support for open access publishing by waiving APCs. For more information Contact Camilla MacKay, Director of Research & Instructional Services, Scholarly Communications Librarian, LITS (cmackay@brynmawr.edu).

Research Associates and Laboratory Research Associates

Research Associates are department-sponsored non-employee affiliates of the College. The Provost's Office sponsors two types of affiliations, Research Associates and Laboratory Research Associates. If approved by the Associate Provost, the affiliate is granted certain campus privileges, such as use of the Bryn Mawr College libraries, on-campus parking, and limited Bryn Mawr computing access. Privileges can now be extended for a maximum of two years. If your department is requesting a Research Associate, please contact Tina Bockius, Faculty Administrative Coordinator, at 610-526-5215 or cbockius@brynmawr.edu. Learn more.