Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
Annual Report
Summer 2008
Academic Year 2008-2009
Donald J. Leopold
Chair, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology
SUNY-ESF
1 Forestry Drive
Syracuse, NY 13210
Email: djleopold@esf.edu; ph: (315) 470-6760
Student Learning Outcomes Assessment (adapted from Dr. R. Norton, EFB Undergraduate
Curriculum Director)
The current Department of Environmental and Forest Biology formed in 1977 with the
amalgamation of three smaller departments, Forest Zoology, Forest Botany and Pathology, and
Forest Entomology. EFB’s undergraduate curriculum has substantially evolved since then, at one
point allowing students to pick from nearly one dozen options, but all under the umbrella of our
Environmental Biology major. That is, between 1965-2002, the Bachelor of Science in
Environmental & Forest Biology was the single undergraduate program offered by the Department of
Environmental & Forest Biology.
As part of the department’s strategic planning we adopted a vision statement in November
2001 that included as a key task the importance of strengthening our undergraduate curriculum,
which we planned to do by offering a smaller number of distinct majors. By Fall ’04, all seven of
EFB’s current undergraduate majors (i.e., Aquatic and Fisheries Science, Biotechnology,
Conservation Biology, Environmental Biology, Forest Health, Natural History and Interpretation,
and Wildlife Science) were being offered, replacing the elective concentrations or options. But with
the implementation of these seven majors, explicit student learning objectives were not developed for
each nor had any formal assessment process been implemented although during the spring ’05
semester, according to a SUNY mandate, an external review of the Environmental Biology major
was made.
During the first half of the fall ’08 semester, the Curriculum Coordinator of each major was
asked to meet with associated faculty to develop preliminary assessment plans. Dr. Norton attended
most of these meetings, to keep the process as uniform as possible and to address questions as they
arose. EFB’s Curriculum and Course Assessment Committee met several times with coordinators and
separately to discuss both general approaches and details of the process, so there was a relatively
high level of interaction.
In the second half of the semester, coordinators were asked to refine and reformat the plans in
accordance with a template given to Dr. Norton by then Dean Raynal. As an intermediate step, Dr.
Norton recast the plan for the Environmental Biology program, passed it through the CCAC and
Dean Raynal for comments and approval, then sent it to the coordinators of the other six majors. The
status of this process for each of EFB’s seven majors is summarized in Appendix P. Specific and
detailed assessment plans for each major were submitted to the Provost’s Office at the end of last
calendar year.