Andi Clemons and Kristin Toth present FGCU’s faculty-focused Interfolio success story at the international 2024 Interfolio Summit in Denver, Colorado

Andi Clemons, director of academic affairs, administration, and budget, and Kristin Toth, academic personnel coordinator, attended the Interfolio Summit, held June 25-27, in Denver Colorado. The summit gathered seventy-nine higher education institutions that utilize the software and their peers that work in Interfolio.

At the summit, Andi and Kristin co-presented their session, “Cultivating Collaboration: How Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Successfully Engaged Faculty to Implement Interfolio,” focused on fostering collaboration and engaging FGCU faculty throughout the implementation of Interfolio.

The Interfolio Summit provides an invaluable opportunity to deepen understanding of the software and engage with other institutions' leaders, gaining insights into their utilization strategies. Returning from the conference, Andi and Kristin were energized by the positive feedback from attendees about their session and inspired by new ideas and methodologies to optimize the system to support FGCU faculty.

Interfolio at FGCU



Interfolio, a faculty information system, was initiated at FGCU in 2021. Presently, the university utilizes two Interfolio modules: Review, Promotion (RPT), a workflow tool, and Faculty Activity (FAR), which catalogs faculty activities and provides essential data for various institutional processes such as evaluation and promotion. The current applications within Interfolio include faculty promotion, administrative summative review, sabbatical applications, and professional development leave applications. The academic year 2024-2025 will mark the inaugural implementation of electronic Professional Development Plans, Annual Professional Development Reports, and Annual Evaluations for faculty.

Transitioning to electronic processes in Interfolio has significantly enhanced efficiency compared to laboriuos paper-based methods. This shift also enables faculty to centralize critical documents in one location that is easily accessible to them at any time. Introducing the Faculty Activity (FAR) module will provide a valuable tool for comprehensively understanding and showcasing the faculty's outstanding contributions. Unit deans, directors, and department chairs will be able to generate reports more effectively, facilitating the dissemination of faculty accomplishments to the broader community and creating enhanced methods for program accreditation reporting.

Faculty engagement is essential for the successful implementation of the Interfolio process. They can support the Interfolio process by keeping informed and, most importantly, actively utilizing the system.

“Our dedicated efforts to optimize this system are most effective when supplemented by feedback from the faculty, who are the true subject matter experts when identifying faculty needs,” said Andi and Kristin.

Interfolio Resources

There are various resources for faculty available on the FGCU Interfolio Website, which includes a link to login to Interfolio directly and a resources page. 

The upcoming 2024-2025 academic year marks a significant milestone for FGCU and its implementation of Interfolio. This year, the university will initiate its first electronic evaluation process within the system, beginning with the Professional Development Plans assigned in late Spring, and progressing towards the Annual Professional Development Reports and Annual Evaluations to be assigned in Spring 2025.

In preparation for these processes, the support for faculty will be enhanced by developing additional training opportunities and creating instructional videos to facilitate their engagement with the system.

To learn more, contact Andi and Kristin.