Using Lotus software to calculate faculty merit increases.

Evaluation of college and university faculty is an annual occurrence in most institutions. The evaluation process is time consuming and may not result in the desired outcome: a discriminating, objective, and comprehensive evaluation of faculty performance. Merit increases are based on the results of faculty performance evaluations. The lack of precision and the complexity of the process supports the adoption of a computer-based approach to calculate faculty merit increases. Lotus is a powerful and sophisticated software program that supports the organization, analysis, and reporting of large amounts of information. This article describes the process for developing a computer spread sheet system for calculating faculty merit increases.