The Report of the Provost’s Advisory
Group on the SUNY Assessment
Initiative
September 2009
Tina Good, Ph.D.
President
Faculty Council of
Community Colleges
October 2009
The Provost’s Advisory Group Charge

The SUNY Board of Trustees, under its Reengineering SUNY
initiative, is seeking to streamline and simplify functions and
processes throughout the State University. Given this context,
the expectations of the Middle States Commission on Higher
Education, and the recent resolutions adopted by the University
Faculty Senate and the Faculty Council of Community
Colleges, the Provost’s Advisory Group shall advise the
University Provost on ways in which the SUNY Assessment
Initiative could be streamlined. Where appropriate, the group
shall make specific recommendations with respect to Trustee
policy that could facilitate such streamlining.
Membership

Chairperson
–
Susan D. Phillips, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
University at Albany/SUNY
Membership


Representatives from the Office of the SUNY
Provost
Faculty, also including
–
–


Tina Good, President of the Faculty Council of Community
Colleges
Ken O’Brien, President of the University Faculty Senate
Assessment Coordinators
Chief Academic Officers
Preface

Middle States Commission on Higher
Education
–

The Advisory Group considered the SUNY
Assessment Initiative within the context of the
current external accreditation environment.
The Advisory Group focused specifically on
the assessment of student learning
outcomes.
Preface


The Advisory Group encourages SUNY to
broaden its assessment initiative to include
the assessment of institutional
effectiveness.
The purpose of assessment is for
excellence and improvement in programs,
pedagogy and student learning, not for the
evaluation or comparison of persons,
programs, or institutions.
Design Principles

The Advisory Group identified a set of design
principles to use as a basis for developing its
recommendations.
Design Principles

Design Principle #1
–

Design Principle #2
–

SUNY System Administration should play a facilitative
rather than a regulatory role.
The ownership of assessment by faculty and campus
leadership is critical.
Design Principle #3
–
Meaningful benefits of engaging in assessment should be
more readily apparent than they currently are, and
resources should be committed to the recommendations
that emerge from assessment results.
Design Principles

Design Principle #4
–

Design Principle #5
–

It is time to streamline the General Education requirements.
Current SUNY assessment processes largely duplicate
external accreditation requirements.
Design Principle #6
–
An effective assessment process should reflect the diversity
of campuses, their missions, their needs, and their
constraints, within the overall mission of the State University
of New York.
Issues and Recommendations

The Advisory Group applied the design
principles when considering how streamlining
might be accomplished.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommendation #1
–
The SUNY Provost should distribute the draft
Design Principles generated by the Advisory
Group for stakeholder comment and input.
Issues and Recommendations

Issue #1
–
To implement SUNY Board of Trustee policy on
assessment, the Provost asks campuses to develop and
implement multi-year plans for assessing:



–
SUNY General Education Learning Outcomes
The campus academic environment (using NSSE and CCSSE)
The undergraduate major
This requirement is consistent with (though not identical to)
the assessment expectations of the Regents, Middle States
and programmatic accrediting agencies.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #1
–
Recommendation #2

The SUNY Provost should charge an advisory group to
draft an amendment to the Board of Trustees’ 2004
resolution that would eliminate duplication of SUNY
requirements and procedures in assessment and
develop an updated role for systemwide assessment.
The Provost should forward draft to SUNY Board for
consideration.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #1
–
Recommendation #3

The SUNY Provost should commission the redesign of
the SUNY Assessment Initiative to reflect the Design
Principles. The redesign should include an evaluation of
how SUNY resources can be best allocated for campusbased assessment purposes.
Observations



It would be helpful for SUNY to convene
discussions within the disciplines to share
ideas about assessment in the major.
The use of CCSSE continues to present
problems for the community colleges that
need to be addressed.
Current guidelines for assessment of the
major may be out of line realities at
community colleges.
Issues and Recommendations

Issue #2
–
–
–
GEAR advises the Provost on general education
assessment and sets procedural and technical
standards for general education assessment
plans and measures.
GEAR reviews general education assessment
plans and advises the Provost on plan approval or
needs for revisions.
GEAR requests Closing-the-Loop Reports.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #2
–
Recommendation #4

A “GEAR” of some kind should provide guidance and
feedback to campuses but should not be restricted to
general education. The funding of this assessment
resource group should be supported by System
Administration.
Issues and Recommendations

Issue #3
–
The SUNY Provost asks campuses to report their
assessment schedules and maintain records for
their own use and in case they are selected for a
periodic audit.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #3
–
Recommendation #5

–
System Administration should affirm that recordkeeping
is a campus responsibility.
Recommendation #6

Recordkeeping should be conducted in compliance with
the requirements of external accreditors.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #3
–
Recommendation #7

–
Recommendation #8

–
System Administration should maintain a set of forms and
materials that may be helpful as campuses prepare and
maintain their accreditation records.
Campuses should maintain materials and assessment
calendars that can be available on request for System use.
Recommendation #9

System Administration should develop a list of
information/documents that are needed for SUNY to meet its
external reporting requirements.
Issues and Recommendations

Issue #4
–
The SUNY Provost provides contracting and
financial support to campuses for the use of
GEAR-approved measures to be used in
strengthened-campus based assessment.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #4
–
Recommendation #10

–
Recommendation #11

–
System Administration should assist campuses in developing
electronic assessment management systems.
The purchasing power of SUNY should be used whenever
possible.
Recommendation #12

Sufficient resources should be allocated to address
assessment costs.
Issues and Recommendations

Issue #5
–
The Provost facilitates partnerships with AIRPO,
Middle States, faculty governance and others to
promote good practice in assessment within the
University.
Issues and Recommendations

Recommended Actions for Issue #5
–
Recommendation #13 and #14

–
System Administration should coordinate partnerships in
order to facilitate campus-based assessment.
Recommendation #15

SUNY should continue and strengthen its presence in
national policy dialogues.