Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why should I use the Faculty Activity Reporting System?
Q. Why are my publications not appearing in my reports?
Q. I am entering Journal information to the Publications screen, where do I enter the "Name of the Journal?"
Q. Why are the grants I entered to the "Unrestricted Sponsored Programs Activity" screen not appearing when I print a Vita?
Q. How do I enter Intellectual property information that is external to Michigan Tech?
Q. How do I get my publications to appear in my NSF Bio?
Q. Are the records secure?
Q. Who will enter the data?
Q. I am a department chair or dean, how do I run reports for all the faculty members in my department?
Q. Where would I enter a guest lecture in a scheduled class?
Q. From the main menu, what categories are pre-filled by the system?
Q. When will data be imported into the system?
Q. When I am running reports (either Ad Hoc or Custom), step number 5 now says "New! Include these accounts: (with options of: Enabled Accounts Only, Disabled Accounts Only, or Enabled and Disabled Accounts)". What does this mean?
Q. Why should I use the Faculty Activity Reporting System?
Answer:
- It provides Michigan Tech with an array of reports generated to serve many administrative and personal purposes, including college-level annual reporting.
- It produces individual faculty-level, department-level, college-level, or institution-level reports in a matter of seconds, based entirely on the user's preferences.
- Data must only be input ONCE rather than needing to reformat and submit information when requested.
- The provost is requiring the use of FARS to produce the Faculty Vitae Update form that are due by May 31, 2011.
- Data can be used to generate accreditation reports.
Q. Why are my publications not appearing in my reports?
Answer:
- For publications to be shown in a report, the record must have a date in the "Expected Date of Submission", "Date Submitted", "Date Accepted" or "Date Published". Please include at least a month and year to allow for accurate report generation as shown below:
Q. I am entering Journal information to the Publications screen, where do I enter the "Name of the Journal?"
Answer:
- The name of the Journal would go in the field: "Title of Larger Work/Publication."/LI>
Q. Why are the grants I entered to the "Unrestricted Sponsored Programs Activity"
screen not appearing when I print a Vita?
Answer:
- For grants to be shown in the Vitae report, the record must have a "Current Status" containing the word "submitted" selected. If you give it a status, and it includes the word "submitted," it will appear in the Vitae report.
Q. How do I enter Intellectual property information that is external to Michigan Tech?
Answer:
- IP information can be up loaded to the system by sending it to amkitalo@mtu.edu.
Q. How do I get my publications to appear in my NSF Bio?
Answer:
- In the publication record, there is a pull down box titled "Include in NSF Bio?". Be sure you have chosen "yes" as shown below:
Q. Are the records secure?
Answer:
- Digital Measures has taken all steps necessary to create a safe environment for your information while still providing you easy, secure access to it.
- All data collected over a 128-bit SSL-encrypted connection
- Servers located in a Tier-One data center
- Locked, caged server room
- Armed, trained security guards on staff 24-hours per day
- Redundant fire suppression and climate control systems
- Redundant power and Internet connections
- Secure nightly backups to five geographically-dispersed locations
- Digital Measures signs-off on and is compliant with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) legislation
- Each client of Digital Measures can securely download a full copy of all of their data at any time, and a secure process can be put in place to do this on an automated basis
- Digital Measures is registered and has certified with the United States Department of Commerce as compliant with the Safe Harbor Principles in effect between the European Commission and US.
Q. Who will enter the data?
Answer:
- It is strongly encouraged that faculty enter the data at their discretion since this tool is available on a 7/24/365 schedule. Faculty are being requested to enter one-year of data, but if they want to be able to produce a full vitae, they will need to go back in and enter all of their data. If faculty enter their data, they will quickly see how convenient and easy it is to input data at their leisure throughout the year when they complete an activity.
- Because using the system is a change in the "way we do business", in order to facilitate the change, the provost's office has hired a student (Matt Teasley) to help faculty to get their curriculum vitae into the faculty activity reporting system (FARS). The most efficient way for this to happen, is doing it by school/department. Deans and chairs have been asked to have the school/departmental coordinator collect the curriculum vitae of faculty who want help (electronic version plus a paper copy). The coordinators then will forward the electronic copies to Matt, via email to: mlteasle@mtu.edu in one e-mail with a clear departmental designation and send the paper copies to: Provost's Office, c/o Jane Waters.
Q. I am a department chair or dean, how do I run reports for all the faculty members in my department?
Answer:
- Use the Run Custom Reports button on the left side of the FARS screen. There are 5 choices for you to make.
- Select the report.
You may choose any of the reports that display. Useful reports include: Faculty Vita Update Form, Sabbatical Leave Report, Vita, Publications - Library Use. Rest assured that whichever report you select, the information all comes from the same source. Therefore, you are only looking at different ways of presenting the same data.
- Select the date range.
You may, of course, choose to keep the default dates that are listed.
- Select who to include.
By default, All is selected. If you are a department chair, all the faculty in your department will be included in the report. If you are a dean, all the faculty in your college will be included. Click in this section to narrow your selection from All to some subset.
- Select the file format
This varies depending on the report, but in general you will be able to select from MS Word, MS Excel, pdf or html formats.
- Select the page size
Please feel free to review as many reports as you like. Save only those that you find useful.
Q. Where would I enter a guest lecture in a scheduled class?
Answer:
- For all activities, the first question you must ask is "Does that activity most closely relate to my Teaching; Creative, Research, and Scholarly Activities; or Service?" How you answer that question determines where you should enter the activity. For example, if the guest lecture was completed as part of your teaching responsibilities, it would be entered under "Extra-Curricular Teaching." If, however, the guest lecture was done as part of your service to the unit or university, then it might more correctly be included under "Department, College/School or University Service."
Q. From the main menu, what categories are pre-filled by the system?
Answer:
- Personal and Contact Information (professional statement and teaching philosophy will have to be entered by faculty)
- Administrative Data — Permanent and Yearly
- Education
- Scheduled Teaching
- Academic Advising - Graduate Student Advising
- Proposal and Award - Sponsored Research
- Intellectual Property
- For a complete list of fields that are pre-filled and which fields require faculty input, refer to the Data Chart by clicking here.
Q. When will data be imported into the system?
Answer:
- Data imports are done at the end of each semester with imported information available in the system within a month following the end of the semester (approximately by the end of May, mid-September, and end of January).
Q.When I am running reports (either Ad Hoc or Custom), step number 5 now says "New! Include these accounts: (with options of: Enabled Accounts Only, Disabled Accounts Only, or Enabled and Disabled Accounts)". What does this mean?
Answer:
- Each user of FARS is set up with an account. When a user leaves the University, their account is "disabled". If you want a report that lists ALL of your faculty in the last 3 years, then you would select "Enabled and Disabled Accounts". If you want a report that only shows all active "accounts" (or users), then select "Enabled Accounts".
Copyright © 2010. Michigan Technological University. All Rights Reserved.
Address questions about this page to Ann Kitalong-Will at amkitalo@mtu.edu.