Bias in Reviewer Groups?

Tiffany Gammell

Our university is researching an issue that has been presented with showing a students legal name vs. preferred name in Reviewer Groups. Some feel that it is introducing bias in the review cycle in the event that the student has gone through a name change or requires gender identity protections. Have any other organizations dealt with/or have you chosen to redact legal name information from an application?

Christin Grissom

Hi, @Tiffany Gammell! Coming from a product perspective, you can remove name visibility for reviewers in the review process to help with these challenges. Take a look at this Knowledge Base Article for details:

I'm hopeful that other users may have some advice to share about what they've done too.

Tara Connolly

@Tiffany Gammell We remove names from the review process. Reviewers only see a number for the applicant.

Lindley Davis

@Tiffany Gammell

Our organization uses preferred name instead of legal name. However, we've run into similar issues and have begun utilizing anonymous reviews. Many of our units review on a conditional level. Since BBAM only lets you set up anonymous reviews by opportunity or by flipping the whole system to anonymous, we've had to split our review cycle into two parts. We flip the whole system to anonymous for groups that need to review that way and then flip it back for groups that need to see names (primarily performance-based units like theater).

Kim Simpkins

@Tiffany Gammell

Our reviewers do not see any personally identifying information including: name, student ID #, address, phone number, or email address. That information is hidden using the available feature in Awards Management.