Academic Program Review SUMMARY*
Department under review__History_________
Date self-study received in Dean’s office December 2013
Date of external consultant’s review March 2014
Date APR received report April 21, 2014
APR’S summary of self-study (first two boxes must be completed)
APR’s summary of how the academic program attempts to reach its goals and objectives
and the extent to which those goals and objectives have been achieved.
The History Department mission statement states a commitment to “develop[ing] historical
understanding and global perspective through…a balanced world History curriculum.” Graduates
from this program are prepared to teach History in a primary and secondary school setting, to work
in archives and museums, and for careers in law and government. The History Department’s
mission fits well with the College of Liberal Studies’ mission to promote “innovative and
constructive dialogues within our local and global communities,” as the outside reviewer and Dean
both noted.
The History Department offers a major and minor, each with four emphases: in Regional History,
in Social and Cultural History, in Religious Studies, and in Public and Policy History. The
emphasis tracks in Social and Cultural History, Religious Studies, and Public and Policy History
were added to the program in May 2013. In addition to its History major, the Department also
offers a History Education major (with Early Adolescence-Adolescence certification) and minor,
and a Social Studies Education (Broad Field) major (with EA-A certification). In addition to its
majors, the Department contributes to five interdisciplinary programs in the College of Liberal
Studies.
The Department has a strong foundation and focus in world History, and all of its majors and
minors are built upon this framework. At universities of comparable size, this is now the norm,
though UW-L’s History Department has pioneered a World History curriculum since 1986. All
History majors complete 40 credits beyond their General Education requirements; all minors
complete 24. The History Education program requires a total of 131 credits (including General
Education and STEP Educational core requirements) and the Social Studies Education Option A
(138-144 credits) and Option B (135-141 credits, including General Education, STEP Educational
Core, and one of the two Options ranging from 54-64 credits each).
The Department has a strong and active assessment program that has resulted in the adoption of
new program-level student learning outcomes in Spring of 2012. The new SLOs focus on the
development of the “essential skills” the program in History provides for its students. The program
also implemented self-assessment as a means of ensuring that students were engaging with the new
SLOs. Programmatic changes necessitated by these new SLOs included new courses, revision of
internship opportunities, and a required skills-based portfolio for each topical area (Public/Policy,
Religion, and Cultural/Social).
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The Department reports a decline in the number of majors (2006-2007: 18 graduates; 2011-2012: 8
graduates) and minors (2006-2007: 16; 2011-2012: 4). As reported in the self-study, these numbers
may reflect the overall downward trend in the total number of History students from 202 to 160, in
addition to declines in teacher education and humanities fields nationwide, as pointed out by the
Dean. The addition of three new emphases is part of the Department’s response to this trend.
APR’s comments including:
Notable Strengths
1. The World History mission at the core of the History program nicely aligns with both
CLS’s mission and the University’s mission.
2. The Department possesses strong assessment procedures and a visible process.
3. The Department has achieved congruency with the American History Association’s Tuning
Project objectives, evincing a commitment to curriculum revision and to meeting
nationally-recognized student learning outcomes.
4. Since 2006-2007, a total of twelve new tenure-track faculty were hired, fulfilling the
staffing aspect of the World History mission.
5. Two faculty members received Carnegie Foundation awards as Wisconsin Professor of the
Year.
6. The program sponsors several successful outreach programs, including National History
Day; Institute for Latina/Latino Studies; Eagle Mentoring; and the Oral History Program.
Notable Challenges/Weaknesses
1. The program documented a steep decline in enrollment, particularly of History majors.
2. Graduates from the program are not sufficiently tracked, a necessary step in assessing
program outcomes.
3. The Department suffers from a lack of facilities.
4. The Department identified the need for increased support staff in particular.
5. The Department recognizes the need for the faculty to compete for external grant funding;
these grants are rare and difficult to obtain.
6. The History Education programs (particularly the Social Studies Education major) are well
over the 120 credit minimum required for graduation, and scheduling requirements can also
add to a students’ time-to-degree.
APR comments on any/all of the six specific components of the self-study (if applicable)
Self Study: Purposes
The mission of the Department of History is to “provide leadership in History education and
scholarship,” and to accomplish this, students are provided “the critical thinking and analytical
skills necessary for interpreting historical evidence and research.” This mission is achieved through
a World History curriculum that (citing UW-L’s Select Mission) “prepares students to take their
place in a constantly changing world community.” The History Department’s mission is also
supportive of the mission of the College of Liberal Studies “to provid[e] a rich, inclusive, and
transformative learning experience that advances the boundaries of knowledge and understanding,”
where “students, faculty and staff lead innovative and constructive dialogues within our local and
global communities.”
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The Department also provides a significant service component for the University’s General
Education program through required survey courses (HIS 101: Global Origins of the Modern
World or HIS 102: Global Transition and Change), in addition to contributing courses to WGSS,
Environmental Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Archaeological Studies, and the International
Studies Minor: Middle East emphasis.
Self Study: Curriculum
The History Major and Minor share four areas of emphasis: Regional History, Social and Cultural
History, Public and Policy History, and Religious Studies. History majors require 40 credits
(including emphases) and the minors require 24 credits (including emphases and History
Education). The Department offers a History Education Major (Early Adolescent-Adolescent
certification) that requires 131 credits, and a Social Studies (Broad Field) major (also EA-A) that
requires 135 to 144 credits. The Department reports that the History Education programs are
significantly over the minimum 120 credits required for graduation. Each major/minor (including
emphases) starts with an introductory methods course, followed by survey courses organized by
region, through upper-level area and thematic courses, and finishing with a capstone research
seminar. The Department has recently added a required course (HIS 200: Historiography and
Historical Methods) to supply students with introductory knowledge of disciplinary conventions in
historiographical research and writing.
The world History mission of the History program is a distinguishing feature of the Department at
UW-L, though it is a standard focus of comparable institutions. The four emphases are unique at
the baccalaureate level. The History Department’s new student learning outcomes (adopted in
2012) reflect disciplinary trends towards reassessing “competencies, goals, and outcomes” in
undergraduate History Departments.
Self Study: Assessment of Student Learning & Degree of Program Success
As a result of extensive departmental discussions, a substantial revision of the program assessment
process was implemented and new program student learning outcomes were adopted during the
2010-2012 Biennium. These SLOs were developed in conjunction with disciplinary-wide
conversations, specifically with the American Historical Association’s 2012 “Tuning Project.” The
2010-2012 Biennial Assessment reports the evaluation of one SLO: “integration of knowledge: the
ability to bring information to bear on an issue from multidisciplinary perspectives.” This SLO was
measured in HIS 200 (Methods) and HIS 490 (Capstone) in 2010-2011 and just in HIS 490 in
2011-2012. Representative research papers were assessed based on students’ ability to integrate
knowledge from a variety of disciplines. The CLS Assessment Committee states that the History
Department’s new assessment plan nicely communicates a clear assessment process and outcomes,
and commended the Department on its “good use of reflection to develop new SLOs and future
goals.”
The Department also completed a successful General Education Assessment and created an
assessment process for HIS 202. Six members of the Department are currently engaged in a Center
for Advanced Teaching and Learning funded “Lesson Study” project intended to further improve
General Education instruction and assessment.
Self Study: Previous Academic Program Review and New Program Initiatives
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The previous APR for History (conducted in 2008) included the following recommendations:
1. Additional FTE to address workload issues (most significant recommendation).
2. Provide a class scheduling plan several semesters into the future.
3. Develop assessment plans specific to the public History minor (this minor has been dropped
since the time of the last APR and is no longer applicable).
4. Continue to address collegiality issues within the Department.
The History Department has increased FTE from 11 to 18 through the CLS Dean’s office and
Growth, Quality and Access funding. The Department called hiring “the major preoccupation
of…faculty in the last five years,” and the result is that course enrollments have been limited and
are lower than in 2008 (for example, in world History the student enrollment per section has
dropped from 60 to 45). The GQA funding has also resulted in an increase in the S&E budget,
offering some discretionary spending for offices, faculty and staff. Class scheduling (specifically:
availability) has also been addressed with the opening of Centennial Hall and the resizing and
updating of classrooms in Wimberly Hall, allowing the Department to maintain a three-year course
schedule to assist with program planning. The Department has not yet implemented a mentoring
program, in large part because of the substantive faculty mentoring available through the CLS
Dean’s office.
The Department is currently working on the following new initiatives:
1. Active Outreach: the Department is in the early stages of a new strategic focus on active
outreach to students across campus, with special emphasis on online presence (website and
social media, including Facebook and Twitter). The goal is both to actively recruit new
students to the History programs and professionalizing the image of the Department for
existing and prospective students.
2. Bylaw Review: The Department is undergoing a by-law review and revision process,
“responding primarily to changed and changing administrative concerns, but also…new
faculty interests in our definition of research, a leave policy, and online teaching.”
Self Study: Personnel
The Department consists of 18 FTE, most of whom are tenure-track. Faculty specializations cover
every region of world History, including recent hires in Middle Eastern, Japanese, African, and
Indian History, as well as specialists in topical History (Biblical History, Public History, Cultural
History/Migration). The Department reports that it has no plans for further expansion of FTE, but is
now invested in providing “the resources necessary for retention, tenure, and promotion of [its
current] junior faculty.” However, the Department ADA is currently at 92%, and needs to be at
100% given the growth in workload with additional faculty. The reassigned time for the
Department chair remains at the level it was with 11 FTE, despite the increase in administrative
expectations for Chairs at the University level. The report states that the current “release time and
stipends are insufficient for the increased difficulty and workload of the position.” In order to
promote additional faculty development, the Department needs reassignment for managing
curriculum, outreach, and advising. The Department also requests release time for an assessment
coordinator and major/minor program coordinators.
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Self Study: Support for Achieving Academic Program Goals (Resources)
Physical Facilities
Space considerations have meant that faculty offices are no longer proximate to one another. With
members of the Department located in two different areas of Wimberly Hall, the facilities available
no longer “promot[e] creativity and collegiality.” According to the self-study, “this must be
addressed.” In addition, the redesign of Wimberly Hall no longer enables faculty to make use of
seminar-style rooms (those designed to hold 15-25 students seated around a table). Two courses in
the Department—HIS 200 and HIS 490—are “designed to elevate majors and minors into the role
of active historians, rather than passive listeners” and seminar-style rooms are necessary to
professionalize these students by “introduc[ing] them to the interactivity, subjectivity,
historiography and debate of the profession.”
Supplies and Equipment
Additional S&E support is required in the form of technology, services and faculty release in order
to implement all the planned initiatives described above.
Personnel
While staffing is currently adequate for curricular needs, departmental personnel needs persist in
the categories of additional travel support (for increased faculty demand), internal development
funding, and external funding, in addition to the request for increased administrative support
described above. Particularly, a 100% ADA and increased release time for Department
administrators (Chair, assessment coordinator and major/minor program coordinators) is requested
in order to successfully meet the increased workload demands of a larger faculty and increased
University-wide responsibilities.
External Funding
The Department indicates that external funding is “difficult to obtain, thus rare.” The Department
makes use of the University Grants office—collaboration between the Department and the Office
of Sponsored Research and Grants resulted in a Fulbright award for Dr. Heidi Morrison—but better
protocol needs to govern this relationship. There is little existing external support for student
scholarships; the lack of UW-L foundation support is reported to be a “significant weakness.”
External Reviewer Recommendations
APR’s Comments on External Reviewer (if applicable)
The external reviewer commended the Department on “embrac[ing] the international mission of the
college” and on its thoughtful alignment of curriculum with the American History Association’s
Tuning Project. The external reviewer also uncovered a perception of division between junior and
senior faculty.
The reviewer made some notable recommendations with which the APR committee concurs:
1. Continue to think of and implement new ideas for marketing the major and minor programs.
2. Address office, lab, and exhibition space issues.
Department’s response to the Reviewer Recommendations
APR’s Comments on the Department’s Response (if applicable)
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In response to the reviewer’s recommendations, the Department noted:
1. They will continue to market their programs. Some of the decline in the number of majors
and minors in the History Department relates to a more general decline in teacher education
and liberal arts programs.
2. The space concerns will not be addressed until future campus construction work is
completed and space is freed up in Wimberly Hall.
3. The Department agrees that they have a generation gap or morale issue, largely as a result
of the extensive recent hiring. The Department proposed that the retention/tenure/promotion
review process and ongoing departmental relationship building will be the mechanisms
through which this issue is addressed.
Dean’s Letter
APR’s Comments on Dean’s Letter (if applicable)
Dean Benson indicated she agreed with the external reviewer’s comments that the History
Department “has embraced the international mission of the college…”. The Dean’s letter expressed
concern regarding the declining number of majors and minors and optimism about the three new
emphasis areas. The dean encourages the Department to continue to find ways to market the new
emphasis areas and encourages the Department to work with Associate Vice-Provost Pierce on
appropriate recruitment strategies.
Space concerns/issues noted by both the Department and external reviewer were recognized by the
dean, will be more fully considered when space becomes available in Wimberly Hall.
The Dean stated “The current History Department Assessment Plan has been reviewed by the CLS
Assessment Committee, which has found it to ‘nicely communicate the assessment processes and
outcomes for the Department/program.” It is recommended by the external reviewer and dean that
the Department use an “e-portfolio process for the new topical majors”.
APR’s Recommendations (must be completed)
Recommendations:
1. Work closely with appropriate programs/individuals to market new emphasis areas.
2. Develop relationship with UW-L Foundation and alumni (better tracking of graduates).
Develop processes and procedures to track graduates.
3. Potentially work with the School of Education to address the number of credits associated
with Social Studies Education major.
4. Continue to look for grant opportunities; explore opportunities to partner with other
programs/faculty on campus.
5. Continue to work with the Dean’s office regarding space needs.
x No serious areas to address – review in next regularly scheduled cycle
□ Some areas to address – review in next regularly scheduled cycle
□ Some areas to address – department should submit short report on progress to Fac
Senate/Provost’s Office in 3 years
* APR’s report to faculty senate will consist of this completed form in electronic form.
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