The University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Case study

Universities and colleges have many compelling reasons to adopt digital faculty information tools but often only one reason for sticking with paper systems: inertia.

To overcome that inaction, sometimes it takes an outside force to get the ball rolling on positive change. In the case of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP), that outside force was a hurricane that damaged paper records.

In response, UNCP administrators adopted Interfolio’s Review, Promotion & Tenure (RPT)
module as the first step in digitizing their records. Since then, the momentum borne of that first step has created all kinds of positive changes at the university

Reasons to adopt digital faculty information tools.

Themes Discussed

Online, Digital Review Process: Easy to Set Up, Easy to Execute

About Interfolio

Conceived by academics for academics, Interfolio is an education technology company headquartered
in Washington, DC, USA and in Cambridge, England, UK. Founded in 1999, Interfolio operates the
acclaimed Faculty Information System, the Researchfish impact assessment platform, and the widely
used Dossier service. Over 400 clients based in 15 countries choose Interfolio’s technology for hiring
and recruitment, academic appointments and timelines, activity data reporting, faculty reviews and
promotions, and research impact analysis. For more information about Interfolio, please contact

“The only real work is setting up your workflow
templates for each review type,” explains Aaron
Vandermeer, UNCP’s Interfolio Administrator. “You have
to make intentional choices, but it’s not hard.”

One time-saving choice UNCP made was to allow for
concurrent review by committee members.
“Our department chairs and peer evaluation committees
can evaluate portfolios at the same time as one another,
saving us four weeks in our timeline,” says Aaron. 

In addition to saving space and time with RPT, the
University has gained the ability to better understand
faculty needs.

“The more faculty career data we get over the years from RPT, the better we’ll understand how
to help faculty with their development,” explains Aaron.

Going Digital Enables Greater Understanding of Faculty Needs

Paper records are not only vulnerable to forces of weather; they also require a lot of space for storage.

After the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, UNCP recognized that it had “too many paper files and not enough space to store them,” says Scott Billingsley, UNCP’s Associate Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Switching to RPT’s digital files and online process freed up both space and time. “Now, faculty, committees, and administrators have much more time and flexibility to carry out academic reviews, freeing up their hours for research, teaching, and service,” Scott says.

Faculty information system saves space and time