The process of developing our 2006 WASC Institutional Proposal has been based on two important principles:
This process was initiated by a memorandum (June 29, 2005) from Accreditation Liaison Officer David Hood to Senate Chair Margaret Merryfield requesting that the Academic Senate recommend to President Maxson the establishment of a Self-Study Steering Committee. This action was taken, and a broadly representative “ad hoc University WASC Self-Study Steering Committee” held its first meeting on November 1, 2005 (see Appendix C for Steering Committee composition).
The Steering Committee discussed key issues WASC had identified in its Action Letter of July 8, 2002 as well as other possible issues for campus consultation at its initial meeting. Steering committee members were asked to fill out the “Worksheet for Preliminary Self-Review Under the Standards.” The WASC Action Letter had mandated two area of focus, and the results of the “Preliminary Self-Review” worksheet indicated the third area of focus for the accreditation process, Human Resources. Several sessions were used to further develop the three key issues, and tentative drafts were developed by December 2005.
In January 2006 a task force of four Steering Committee members attended the WASC Workshop at Pomona College (January 10-11, 2006). In February they recommended that the Committee involve the entire campus in the development of researchable questions for the CSULB WASC proposal. The Steering Committee then requested that the Coordinator for Assessment and Program Review, and the General Education Coordinator, assist in the development of an effective, university-wide, electronic questionnaire to identify researchable questions. President F. King Alexander and Senate Chair Margaret Merryfield sent a joint letter, “Identifying Key Questions for WASC Accreditation,” to the campus community on March 6, 2006 to elicit faculty and staff feedback about key issues proposed for the self-study. The letter was followed by an electronic questionnaire for faculty and staff and another version for students. 993 employees and 1,853 students completed the survey. (See Appendix D for the survey and its results.) The areas of concern for both employees and students coincided with the three core areas that both WASC and the Steering Committee had selected. In addition, specific areas for research were identified by the survey results.
In addition to the questionnaire, members of the university community were invited to participate in discussions of the three key areas, and provided additional suggestions for issues to consider or questions for research. These included an open meeting for lecturers, a special session at the Academic Senate, and meetings of several constituent groups. These sessions provided input that was well aligned with the results of the questionnaire.
The survey also provided an important opportunity to increase campus awareness of the accreditation process. Approximately 29,000 students were sent the survey; 2,856 students accessed the survey, and 1,853 completed the survey. The survey results were posted on the Academic Senate’s web site. In August and September, the Accreditation Coordinator made presentations to the Academic Senate, the Deans’ Council, the colleges’ Faculty Councils, department chairs’ meetings, the Staff Council, and the Associated Students Senate to discuss both the survey results and the Institutional Proposal. As the task forces are constituted to work on the researchable questions, a series of meetings and focus groups devoted to single specific issues will take place. Having acted on campus suggestions about the choice of the researchable questions, the Steering Committee has already begun a four-year campaign to involve the campus community in the investigation of those questions.
