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Evaluation and Exhilaration

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By Mary Francine Danis

"I don't think I've ever heard 'evaluation' and 'exhilaration' used in the same sentence before," my lunch companion said. I had been telling her about conducting faculty evaluations at the end of my first year as dean of arts and sciences at my university.

As a longtime faculty member, I had always approached the annual review with a mixture of dread, irritation, and hope. I resisted filling out forms and admitting where I had once more fallen short of my own expectations, yet I always experienced hope at the chance to revive those dreams and plans.

My ambivalence had led me, as a new dean, to postpone the call for evaluations as long as I dared.

Once I started the process, however, I quickly discovered that the conversations I was required to have with faculty members about their evaluations were a source of new energy. My colleagues were doing work that I had barely glimpsed during the year, and they were eager both to educate me and to continue their own development. One brought in her laptop and showed me a bit of an animated lesson on genetics. Another described a musical composition of his, with a promise to bring in the CD. Still others described commendations and honors.

Those discussions were truly exhilarating -- and I used that word so often at the time that I felt impelled to check out its etymology. I learned from the Online Etymology Dictionary that "exhilaration" comes from the roots "ex," or "out," and "hilare," "to make cheerful" or "to laugh."

I don't remember how much we actually laughed during that first review cycle, but our earnest discussions did generate moments of admiration and delight. As I sat face to face with faculty members, celebrating what was strong in their records and seeking remedies for what was not, my exhilaration arose from at least two sources: I was learning more about myself and the academics I served; and I was deepening my understanding of evaluation itself.

I learned anew how exciting it is to peek into realms of knowledge, and how humbling it is to work with people who explore those realms on a daily basis. I'm a writing teacher myself, practicing a discipline that emphasizes process as much as product, so I learned from colleagues who deal constantly with new discoveries in history, environmental science, and other areas. As I moved from one session to the next, I deepened my perception of myself as a connector among ideas, projects, and people.

My colleagues are avid learners themselves, and many of them are superb teachers. To some extent I knew that already: I had taught alongside them and/or served on committees with them for something like three decades.

Still, I was newly excited to find out about the good things people were doing -- the high-school drama workshops, the convention trips with student presenters.

At the same time, I frequently found myself asking, "What led you to try that?" and "How could you tell that it worked?" Their answers -- and the very process of asking the questions -- made me appreciate the ones who provided skillful documentation. The process also turned me into a preacher of the gospel of "keeping track."

In other words, I grew to understand the evaluation process more deeply as I walked through it with faculty members. I came to see that evaluation is truly "e-value-ation" -- drawing out our values, recognizing our strengths. The Latin "valere," after all, carries the connotation of "being strong."

Of course, we talked not only about the past year but also about plans for the future.

Azar Nafisi, in her memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, writes often about a mentor whom she refers to only as "Mr. R.," or "my magician." After one of her visits with this man, Nafisi states, "This was what was good about him: people who went to see him somehow ended up with some plan or other, whether it was how to behave towards a lover or how to start a new project or structure a talk."

I can't claim magician status, but I believe that at least a few faculty members left our sessions with "some plan or other": a simple resolution to marshal more evidence, a proposal to connect with a like-minded colleague, or a small project for advancing the scholarship of teaching. When that happened, we both experienced a surge of good cheer.

Postscript

I wrote the preceding reflections a year ago, and I have to admit that the exhilaration tapered off as I plowed through the writing-up of my assessments, though my admiration lingered.

Now, having been through a second round of evaluations, I find that the exhilaration remains, but in a subtler form, subdued by events and the wearing off of newness. Yet I find a fresh source of cheer in the opportunity to see progress.

At least one person made strides in scholarly activity, and several grew more skillful at documenting their assertions and achievements. During my second review cycle, I framed many of our discussions with a few overarching questions: "What has been most satisfying about your performance in the past year? What have you learned? What do you hope to accomplish in the coming year?"

Those questions helped us think in larger terms, connecting our work with that of the university as a whole. As I concluded that second round, my exhilaration took the form, not of an emotional high, but of a steady gratitude. Evaluation is no laughing matter, but it is an opportunity to demand and celebrate the best in us. That is everyday magic and good reason for delight.