ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
August 30, 2002
Minutes
The meeting was called to order by last year’s chair, Laura Henriques. Those present introduced themselves to the committee members.
The first order of business was to elect this year’s committee chair. It was decided to elect Co-Chairs, and Laura Henriques and Van Novak were elected for the 2002-2003 term.
The Committee will meet on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month (assuming it does not conflict with Academic Senate meetings) from 2:00 to 3:30 pm in the Academic Senate conference room.
Laura Henriques gave a recap of the June 2002 Assessment Committee retreat. The committee looked at the survey data from the survey of department student learning outcome goals for the accountability report, and from the survey of departments on integrating assessment into program review. The committee also considered the implications of the WASC report for the assessment committee, and the role of the assessment coordinator vis-a-vis the committee.
Vice President Kathy Cohn spoke to the committee about recent developments and initiatives underway for the new academic year. These include the appointments of Gary Reichard as Provost and David Dowell as Director of Strategic Planning, and the creation of a task force headed by Mark Wiley to look at the educational effectiveness of General Education. There will also be a need to consider reorganization plans for the campus in light of the need to establish a culture of evidence. The assessment committee needs to review the university’s 1995 assessment plan and recommend how to revise it and incorporate it into the planning and educational effectiveness efforts underway at the university level.
Van Novak addressed the ways that Institutional Research could play a more significant role in bringing about more data-based decision-making on campus.
Several suggestions were made for initiatives for the coming year, including:
-inviting the college assessment coordinators to the meetings of the assessment committee;
-investigating the possibility of combining the awards programs of the assessment committee, educational effectiveness, educational innovation, and the academic computing center;
-sponsoring travel to assessment conferences for key people on campus with the remaining assessment budget for this year.
The next meeting data was set for September 26th, and the meeting was adjourned .
-Minutes submitted by Michelle Saint-Germain