By KYLER KUYKENDALL, Staff Reporter ¦
In the 2017-2018 school year, Amarillo College rolled out the merit pay system that uses three categories of performance to decide the amount of pay an instructor receives.
Faculty members’ self-evaluations and their supervisors’ evaluations are run through a rubric that looks at areas of teaching, service and professional development performance. This merit is then added to their normal work payment.
“We teach classes, we serve on committees and we help with various things around campus, but anything that we do above and beyond our job description falls under the merit category,” Nancy Forrest, a reading instructor, said. Forrest, who was part of the faculty merit pay proposal team, said that the launch year of the new system has had some issues.
“I think it has been a bit cumbersome and laborious. We did the very best job that we could possibly do, but we knew it was going to require some tweaking. We are in the process of revising it with input from the faculty. The goal is to make it a more streamlined process,” Forrest said.
Students said they support the idea of giving faculty extra incentives to achieve. “I think pushing teachers to go above their job description and get involved is good for the teachers and Amarillo College as a whole,” Hannah Flores, a physical therapy major, said.
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