When students are asked what they love most about Hendrix, they choose the faculty; when the same question is posed to faculty, they choose the Hendrix students. This complementarity is not surprising at Hendrix. The academic community is at the core of our mission, and that community is built upon the mutual love of informed learning that faculty and students share.
Hendrix is an intentional community in this respect. Because Hendrix is committed to building and maintaining this sort of community, invitations to join the Hendrix Faculty are extended with great care. As a highly interactive community, we value colleagues who are both deeply committed to their own disciplines and who exhibit an inquisitive nature that engages them with areas of learning throughout the College. We are especially interested in Faculty who share these broad-based interests with others and who manifest in their own behavior the pursuit of liberal education. Thus, as a community of teachers/scholars, we are eager to recruit those who share our mission in totality. Hendrix Faculty contribute to the community in unique ways—often as outgrowths of personal interests—but all share a love of knowledge, a dedication to teaching students, and a concern for and willingness to guide our students throughout their college years and beyond.
Because Hendrix goes through a highly selective process in recruiting Faculty, those who join our community should already understand and presumably share the values which define the College. Accordingly, the goals of our Faculty evaluation system are designed to be developmental in nature, rather than punitive. The College has a strong investment in the success of those who have been so carefully selected. Consequently, the evaluation process has a very strong nurturing component, together with more traditional criteria for measuring academic progress.
We hope to meet the following objectives through this evaluation process:
- To assess a Faculty member’s overall development.
- To provide the necessary support and guidance to help Faculty achieve their full potential at the College.
- To ensure, through the tenure and post-tenure review processes, that the Hendrix Faculty continues to consist of individuals who hold the attributes discussed above.