For information about how Faculty Activity Report (FAR) data will be used, how data flows into and out of the sytem, and who has access to data in the system, please review the below policy notice.
Faculty Activity Report System Privacy Notice
Purpose
The College of Engineering Faculty Activity Report (FAR) system is intended to collect information about the diverse activities and achievements of Michigan Engineering faculty, and to make those data available for analysis by leadership at the departmental and college levels. A high value is placed on the privacy and accuracy of this information, and in accordance with the U-M Website Privacy Notice, this notice is intended to provide transparency about how data flows into and out of this system, and how any information shared will be used.
How Information Is Collected
All information collected by the FAR system is provided either by a given faculty member (or delegate), or is extracted from U-M institutional data sources. The data sources used for FAR are:
| FAR Section |
Subsection |
Data Sources |
| General Information |
U-M Appointments |
The U-M Human Resources Data Warehouse |
| Preferred Name |
The U-M Human Resources Data Warehouse |
| A given faculty member or their delegate |
| External Appointments, Current/Future Research Programs/Directions |
A given faculty member or their delegate |
| Teaching |
Courses Taught |
The U-M Student Records Data Warehouse |
| PhD Students Supervised |
The U-M Student Records Data Warehouse |
| The U-M Human Resources Data Warehouse |
| A given faculty member or their delegate |
| PhD Committees |
The U-M Student Records Data Warehouse |
| Directed Studies |
The U-M Student Records Data Warehouse |
| GSRAs |
The U-M Student Records Data Warehouse |
| The U-M Human Resources Data Warehouse |
| Research Fellows |
The U-M Human Resources Data Warehouse |
| Research |
Publications |
The Michigan Research Experts Data Warehouse |
| A given faculty member or their delegate |
| Grants/Contracts and Proposals |
The U-M eResearch Data Warehouse |
| Technology Transfer & Entrepreneurship |
All information in this section is provided by a given faculty member or their delegate |
| Service & Outreach |
All information in this section is provided by a given faculty member or their delegate |
| Honors & Awards |
All information in this section is provided by a given faculty member or their delegate |
| Additional Information |
All information in this section is provided by a given faculty member or their delegate |
Unless otherwise indicated, the data for a given FAR cycle is collected for the previous calendar year, e.g. the 2025 cycle would contain data from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024. This means data for a FAR cycle will span multiple academic and fiscal years.
Data Accuracy
During a FAR cycle (the dates for which are determined by each department), data is pulled daily from University sources per the table above. Data sourced from University systems is read-only in the FAR system. The intent of making it read-only is to ensure that data is corrected “at the source,” rather than creating a new quasi-authoritative system. The FAR system provides simple ways to share data inaccuracies with staff members in your department.
Data that do not come from an outside source may be edited by a faculty member until the FAR is finalized or the cycle ends. Publications and PhD students supervised are currently exceptions in that these data are pulled once, at the start of the FAR cycle. Faculty members may thereafter edit information for these questions in the FAR system, until the FAR is finalized or the cycle ends.
Faculty members must approve the accuracy of the data in each section before the FAR can be finalized. Once finalized, the FAR is complete. All data for a given faculty member will be snapshotted and become read-only from then on.
How This Information Is Used
Data collected by the FAR system will be used in a number of different ways by different audiences. Some examples of how this data may be used:
- To feed other systems related to faculty “life cycle,” such as CVs, CaseBooks, or Awards and Honors
- To evaluate faculty performance for promotion and tenure
- To analyze trends and prepare dashboards for College or Departmental leadership
- To enumerate and recognize the research, teaching, scholarship, service, and other intellectual contributions of College of Engineering faculty members for publicity purposes
Information in the FAR system will be retained indefinitely. If you have specific questions about how your data will be used, please contact your department chair or the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
With Whom This Information Will Be Shared
As a faculty member, your faculty activity report will be visible to you, your department chair, deans, associate deans, and designated administrators (delegates) within your department and in College Resource Planning and Management. These individuals may have access to view or manage your data. Others at the University may have access to the data sources that feed the FAR system, and access to those data sources is vetted separately.