Here’s the scenario: You are the sole executive authority of Hypothetical College, which has a faculty of three. It’s performance evaluation time, and you have $1,500 in bonus money to distribute, in increments of $500 (that is, you can award $0, $500, $1,000, or $1,500 to each faculty member, but the total amount of all the awards can be no more than $1,500). To make this easier, all three of your faculty taught the same number of students, received the same student evaluation scores, and served on the same campus committees, so all you need to do is evaluate their scholarship.
Professor A is a professor of Literature, and just received a contract for a new book on expository language in Moby Dick from Midwestern University Press.
Professor B is a professor of Science, and just published a four-page article in Subfield Research Letters, and submitted a second four-page article.
Professor C is a professor of Art, and completed a new sculpture, which was exhibited with two earlier pieces as part of a show at Snooty New England College Museum of Art.
How much money do you give each of them?
(Obligatory Disclaimer: the faculty in this example are entirely fictional, and any resemblence to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental. No animals, faculty, students, or college administrators were harmed in the making of this blog post.)