PROGRAM REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE
 
Minutes of: Sep 9th 2004 
 
Present: C. Coron (co-chair), M. Kennedy, R. Mugno, H.  Podnar (co-chair), E. Schmitt.
 

Started: 10:15am.

The meeting started with a discussion about the selection of SCSU peer institutions for comparison purposes. The comparison should serve the dual purpose: first, to establish the current SCSU instruction quality status, and second, to determine the future directions of growth. Some of the members noticed that the retention rate as a performance indicator might not honestly reflect the quality of an institution. Some of the other quantitative measures were also questioned (SAT, Praxis-I).

Dr. Kennedy reported that the position of the Assessment Coordinator is now official. SCSU has also provided a space for the Assessment office located in EN B 213. The office current activities include: preparation for a mid-report (2005) for NEASC, and developing a new assessment manual. New draft NEASC standards are being circulated for comment. There is a larger focus on assessment in the new standards, including use of 'external perspectives' that might include: external accreditation, meeting well-established external standards and external review.

The CSU's "Learning Assessment and Improvement Grant Program", attracted a significant number of good grant proposals. In addition to CSU funds, some SCSU grant proposals received funding from the Office of Academic Affairs. The results funded by the grants will be presented at the next CSU "Campus Connections" Assessment Conference to take place at Eastern CSU. Successful proposals are available for a review by request.

One of the proposals would require services provided by "TurnItIn.com". The service will generate a list of resources (on-line/off-line) that a student paper might have used. It is a tool that can detect possible cases of academic dishonesty. Although this portion of the proposal was not funded, members will inquire if it is possible to obtain a SCSU wide site license.

SCSU has subscribed to the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) service (http://www.iub.edu/~nsse/). All the incoming freshmen were required to take a survey as a part of the program. NSSE will report the collected data for SCSU and some benchmark universities.

SCSU has also subscribed to the HERI (Higher Education Research Institute) Faculty Survey (http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html). The collected data will be shared with the departments.

The meeting ended with a short visit to the Assessment Office (EN B 213).
 
Adjourned at 11:00am

Recorder: H. Podnar