Each January, faculty members are supposed to submit a Record of Activities form and a CV to
their department/area/school Chair/Director. The Chair, in consultation with a few other faculty
members in the department, assesses the teaching, research, and service contributions from the
previous calendar year. Each faculty member is assigned a final CP/M score, which is a weighted
average of their teaching, research, & service scores (typically 40/40/20, but could be e.g. 80/20
for teaching-stream faculty, or some other weighting as outlined in each faculty member’s letter of
contract).
There are constraints on the CP/M scores that can be assigned. MUFA negotiates the number
of par units that are available during each negotiation. It has been set at 1.2/faculty member for
many years. Of those, typically 1.1/faculty member are allocated at the departmental level (the
Chair can distribute only a number of par units equal to 1.1 times the number of faculty members in
their department/area/school), 0.05/faculty member allocated at the Faculty level, and 0.05/faculty
member are retained centrally to be allocated by the President, Provost, Dean of Graduate Studies
& Dean of Health Sciences. In addition, CP/M scores can only be allocated in increments of 0.25,
within the range of 0 to 2.5.

The Chair brings their recommendations to the Dean, along with a rationale and any requests for
any discretionary units that may be available at the Faculty level. After some negotiation, a ‘probable’ allocation is decided.

The Deans bring their recommendations to the Dean of Graduate Studies, who ensures consistency across the university and also helps allocate the centrally-held units.
When advised by the Dean, the Chairs communicate their ‘probable merit allocation’ to the faculty
members, usually in late April/early May. The final decisions are communicated to each faculty
member as part of the annual salary increase letter, which arrives in our departmental mailboxes
around June 20th each year. The conversion of CP/M scores into dollars depends on your current
salary: one CP/M point is worth more when your salary is low, and worth less as your salary
increases. See the policy for the formula, and the MUFA website for a history of salary breakpoints
and par values. Each Faculty and department has their own way of assessing the various contributions. Some
aspects are quantitative; others are more qualitative. The following text is included on the Record
of Activities form:

The data in the Record of Activities form is used to evaluate the contributions of a faculty member
in each area of teaching, research and service, and to develop a weighted average of these. Merit
evaluations should take into account all contributions listed. However, it is important to note that
the chair or director, supported by any other colleagues who assist in making merit evaluations,
will use their judgment in deciding how to value each contribution listed.
Deans and chairs / directors will in many cases augment this guidance to take into account local
expectations and disciplinary norms. These might include, for example, an indication of the stage
in the life of a publication at which it is used in the CP/M scoring (e.g. when accepted or when
published); how a major publication such as a book or an edited volume is to be weighted and
whether such a contribution is applied to the CP/M score over more than one year. In a similar
manner departments may vary as to how they value work in progress, the development of long
term partnerships, non-refereed publications, etc. While such local variation is reasonable and
appropriate, it is important that faculty understand such expectations and practices in advance.

The short answer is that you should include everything you have done that is even vaguely related
to your university duties. The categories on the form will guide you, but if you have done something
that isn’t standard, or isn’t easily categorized, find a place to include it. It can also be a good idea
to let your Chair know the level of effort involved (e.g. amount of time spent, number of meetings,
etc), particularly if the activity is not something that they would know a lot about. Your Record of
Activities form is an opportunity to provide information that is already on your CV (publications,
supervision, conferences etc) as well as the narrative about your activities during the year, things
that do not easily show on a CV.
The Chair must base their evaluation on what you put in your Record of Activities form. They
cannot rely on what they may have heard, or what they “should know” about your contributions.
This means that if you leave a section blank (e.g. Service), you will necessarily receive zero for that
contribution. The obvious extension is that if you don’t submit the form at all, you forfeit your CP/M
increase to your salary for the year.
A longer and more specific answer varies from department to department. Faculty members should
talk to their Chair, and ask how they do the departmental evaluations. There should also be other
faculty members who have been involved in the CP/M process (e.g. former Chairs, Associate
Chairs, Executive Committee) who can also provide this departmental insight.

Chairs are provided with a finite number of points to allocate to the faculty in their departments. In
practice, this makes CP/M a relative system. If a faculty member in your department is uniquely
successful in one or more of the categories such that a higher rating is warranted in a given year,
the additional CP/M points that are allocated to that faculty member will result in fewer CP/M
points being available to allocate to other faculty. This could result in one’s CP/M score decreasing
from one year to the next even if one’s performance did not materially change. The opposite could
also occur. One’s CP/M score could increase from one year to the next even if one’s performance
did not materially change if the performance of other faculty members in the department in a given
year is lower than in the previous year(s).
There is, unfortunately, some confusion around this since the CP/M policy also states
Par connotes satisfactory performance and implies competent discharge of the duties normally
associated with a faculty appointment at McMaster. A faculty member who performs these duties
satisfactorily is of par merit; … In any year a majority of faculty members receive at least a par
increment which implies an absolute scale. Because CP/M is quantized in 0.25 increments, and
Chairs typically are given about 1.1 to 1.15 units per faculty to assign, it can be very challenging to
assign CP/M scores. For example, a “raw” score of 0.85 might get rounded down to 0.75, and not
actually imply incompetent performance of your duties. This is why it is important to discuss your
score with your Chair if you are surprised or confused about how it was determined.
MUFA has done some analysis of CP/M scores in recent years. Typically about 10% of faculty
members get below par; and the rest are split almost evenly into three categories: par, 1.25 (i.e.
slightly above par), and 1.5-2.5 (well above par)

Because your Dean and the central administration ‘hold back’ a certain number of CP/M points
that they can allocate at their discretion. Chairs make recommendations to the Dean about how
those should be allocated within their department; Deans can advocate with the Dean of Graduate
Studies for allocation of the central pool.

CP/M scores are not grievable, but you can request that your score be reviewed (essentially, an appeal). If you are concerned about your score, the first step is to discuss your score with your Chair.
If you are still not satisfied, you may ask the Provost to appoint a Review Committee to review
your award. Such a request shall normally be lodged within six months of the effective date of the
award. The Review Committee consists of the Provost who will serve as Chair, and two faculty
members, normally from your Faculty

The CP/M policy is silent on this question, which means that some procedure has been worked
out between the Department Chairs and Deans (and also that it could change as those individuals
move out of their positions). A faculty member in this situation, or with any other non-standard
appointment at McMaster, should ask their Chair(s) for an explanation of the process, and possibly
get a description in writing. If they are concerned about the appropriateness or fairness of the
process, they should discuss these with their Chair(s) and Dean(s).