Policy Manual

For the purpose of implementing the Regents' policy on oral communication competence each department or program must prepare a plan incorporating the following elements.

1. New Appointments.
   1.  Assessment of relevant communication skills as part of the documentation in support of filling any faculty or teaching assistant position.
   2.  Confirmation that all prospective faculty and teaching assistants exhibit communication skills adequate to any duties to which they are assigned.
2. Periodic Assessment and Evaluation.
   1.  Provision for evaluation of all faculty members and teaching assistants by the end of any semester in which they have sufficient direct contact with students to render such evaluation meaningful. This procedure must include, at a minimum, a mechanism for written student evaluation.
   2. Provision for a preliminary assessment, within the first eight weeks of the assignment of teaching duties, of all faculty members and teaching assistants who have not previously taught at the University.
   3. Provision for the assessment of communication skills as part of all peer reviews of teaching effectiveness of faculty. In particular, adequate communication skills will continue to be among the criteria for promotion and tenure of teaching faculty.
   4. Provision for informing students of departmental, collegiate, and University protocols concerning student complaints.
   5. A procedure for dealing with problems revealed by the evaluations described above.

This plan will be filed with the appropriate dean or administrative officer. It will be the responsibility of the departmental executive officer or program officer to implement this policy and to ensure that adequate standards of oral communication competence are maintained in the unit.

(IC 262.9(25); BRPM 3.21)