July 17, 2018
The University of Michigan School of Education and School for Environment and Sustainability have selected Interfolio, provider of faculty-focused higher education technology, to manage faculty activity and advancement data online. (See also: University of Michigan Selects Interfolio’s Faculty Information System to Support Faculty Hiring, Affirmative Action, and EEO)
The two academic units within the University chose Interfolio to support annual faculty activity reporting cycles more efficiently and effectively by moving away from cumbersome paper-based processes to an online environment.
“We had huge paper trails every time we tried to do a faculty review. Between Word documents and printed documents, it’s just a total mess that the administrative assistants had to sort through and put together,” said Moe Daraiseh, Director of Information Technology in the School for Environment and Sustainability. “It took a lot of time and effort, and a lot of frustration, to get it done. We wanted to streamline that process and make it as easy as possible for faculty, staff, and administrators.”
“We faced the classic problems of using a 20th century process for activity reporting, which involved faculty filling out very long Word-document forms, and compiling those into reports for reviewers,” stated Joe Gorde, Director of Information Technology in the School of Education. “There was a significant potential for errors, and it was time-consuming having to send reminders to faculty. This was an easy decision because Interfolio had the relevant product to eliminate our pain points.”
Both schools had considered in-house digital systems, but concluded the cost to build and maintain an internal system was not feasible given the features and resources provided with Interfolio’s solutions. Also, there were several other schools within the University already using Interfolio modules. This positive relationship provided a compelling vetting process for the current adoption.
“The University of Michigan’s School of Environment and Sustainability and the School of Education provide great examples of academic vision and leadership for technology use,” said Andrew Rosen, CEO, Interfolio. “Collaborating with institutions committed to enhancing the impact of the faculty and the quality of life for all stakeholders is key to gaining a holistic view of the faculty lifecycle.”
For more information on the Interfolio Faculty Information System, please visit www.interfolio.com.
About Interfolio
Founded in 1999, Interfolio is an education technology company based in Washington, DC, and offers the first holistic faculty information system to support the full lifecycle of faculty work—encompassing job seeking, professional accomplishment (in teaching, research, and service), evaluation success (in reviews, tenure, promotion, sabbatical), and beyond. All Interfolio software applications focus on faculty, with workflow tools to support shared governance processes; activity reporting solutions that support accreditation, decision making, and data analytics; and consumer offerings that provide portable, private dossier collection and curation for sharing with academics and others. Working with over 200 clients, Interfolio leads with vision and innovation, always focused on advancing faculty and their institutions. For more information about Interfolio, please contact team@interfolio.com, or visit www.interfolio.com.