Academic Program Review SUMMARY
Department under review: Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Date self-study received in Dean’s office: May 2014
Date of external consultant’s review: April 10, 2014
Date APR received report: June 9, 2014
APR’S summary of self-study
The Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) offers an
undergraduate Women’s Studies major and a Women’s Studies minor. The major
program was implemented in 2008, and is now beginning to see a significant number of
graduates. The numbers of graduates in the three academic years 2009 through 2012
have been 3, 4, and 10 in that order. The number of students graduating with the minor
was stable in the years 2006-12, ranging from 9 to 15 and averaging 12 minors
graduating per year. The SCH/FTE ratio for the Department has averaged 192 (sd = 46),
which is somewhat less than the university average, 304 (sd = 17) for the same
semesters.
Both the Women’s Studies major and the minor are strongly interdisciplinary.
According to the self study, the major is somewhat unusual among women’s studies
programs in integrating internships into the curriculum by design of courses and by
advising (internships are not required), and requiring work on feminism and social
change, and authentic problem solving. The number of required credits in the major is
33, which is less than in most major programs. That is intentional, because the WGSS
Department wants to make it feasible for a student to take a second major in a different
department. Second majors are common among students majoring in Women’s Studies.
In addition to the major and minor programs in Women’s Studies, the WGSS
Department runs the Self Sufficiency Program (SSP), dedicating .5 FTE to that program.
The SSP is a non-credit pre-college program for adults who need help in acquiring an
education and are motivated to seek it. Many students in this program are single
mothers, redirecting their lives in the wake of domestic abuse, and many people in the
program live in poverty. Thus a commitment to social justice is not just theoretical, but is
put into practice by this Department.
APR’s comments including:
Notable Strengths
1. Strong interdisciplinary collaborations with other departments.
2. Nationally, women’s studies units that have department status and field a fullfledged major are somewhat rare according to the external reviewer. This
puts our WGSS Department in a good position to play a leadership role in the
field of women’s studies.
3. Student internships are supported by the curriculum and many students gain
valuable experience through these internships.
4. The percentage of minority students among Women’s Studies major and
minor students (approximately 19%) is well above the percentage for all UWL undergraduates (approximately 8.5%).
Notable Challenges
1. The Department needs to continually find ways to communicate effectively to
prospective students the strong points of the major program in order to
increase enrollment. Lack of familiarity and misperceptions about the field
add to the challenge of recruitment.
2. The timing of direct assessment gives an incomplete picture of student
learning.
3. The limited number of core courses that are common to all Women’s Studies
majors adds complexity to creating and assessing program SLOs.
APR comments on any/all of the six specific components of the self-study (if applicable)
Self Study: Purposes
Complete program goals are defined in the department’s bylaws with the core goal of
WGSS being “to develop students with strong knowledge, skills, and aptitudes to help
make the worlds they occupy better for women, people of color, low-income people, and
gender and sexual minorities.”
The goals highlight the value of interdisciplinary connections and the importance of
maintaining and enacting the connections between theory and practice.
Self Study: Curriculum
The minimum total number of credits that a student majoring in Women’s Studies
would need to graduate is 120. Of these, 48 are for General education, 33 are in the
Womens’ Studies major, itself, 11 or more are for the college core requirements (varies
by college), and 18 or more are for a second major or for a minor. An additional 10
credits are needed to meet the University 120 credit minimum.
There are only two courses within the Women’s Studies major program that are
required (WGS 390 Social Justice Research Methods and WGS 499 Women’s Studies
Seminar). All other courses within the major are electives chosen from multiple options
within each of six categories: I Introductory, II Transnational, III Intimacy, sexuality, and
the family, IV Gender stratification, V Feminisms/social change, VI Theory and practice.
This structure provides great flexibility within the major program.
WGSS majors typically combine the major with another major (for example
Community Health Education, History, or Communication Studies). The major is
designed to be small enough to permit students to do so without violating the excess
credits policy while maintaining the rigor and depth sufficient to support success in
graduate-level work and in complex 21st-century workplaces.
Gender Studies and Sexuality Studies are recent national developments, typically
growing out of Women’s Studies. At the time the Women’s Studies major was
developed UW-L did not offer enough courses on gender or masculinity and the
commitment was made to expand internal offerings on masculinity and sexual
orientation. With recent hires and through interdisciplinary collaborations, the
department has started to grow course options related to masculinity and sexual
orientation. For example a new course, History and Psychology of Masculinity, has
been developed and is well-received by students.
WGSS offer two courses for the General Education program (WGS 100, Gender
and Race in American Institutions; and WGS 230: Women’s Diversity: Race, Class,
and Culture), each with multiple sections with the capacity to serve approximately 330
students each semester. Both courses are long-standing offerings in their General
Education category (II. A. Minority Cultures or Multiracial Women’s Studies).
Self Study: Assessment of Student Learning & Degree of Program Success
The WGSS department has a complete process in place for assessing both their
major and minor programs in Women’s Studies. However, there are some issues
related to assessment that the department is aware of and working to address.
Student learning outcomes for both the major and minor program are clearly laid
out and have been revised during the review period to improve measurability.
Student portfolios that are constructed during the senior seminar course (WGS 499)
using artifacts from previous and current major/minor courses are used for direct
assessment of SLOs. Rubrics are established for scoring these portfolios.
Additionally, reflective essays from the senior seminar course are used in indirect
assessment. The department has provided clear evidence of using assessment
results to spur thoughtful reflection on the curriculum and the assessment process.
The department is aware that the assessment program has weaknesses and it
can give an incomplete picture of student learning. The challenges related to
assessment are tied to the timing of assessment and to the relatively small number of
common courses within the major program.
The senior seminar course is taken in the Fall semester of a student’s final year.
Many students find the Women’s Study major late in their career at UW-L, so at the
time of senior seminar they may have multiple major courses left to take in the
following Spring semester. Thus, their student portfolio that is created before
completing all major courses is incomplete and possibly lacking evidence of one or
more SLOs. The WGSS department is planning to shift to an on-line portfolio within
D2L that will not be tied to the timing of the senior seminar course to address the
timing issue. Students can work on developing their portfolios during the senior
seminar course, but then continue to add to them in the following semester.
Because there are only two courses required of all Women’s Studies majors,
students take a variety of paths within the program. Additionally, many major courses
are taught by faculty outside of the WGSS department. As a consequence, it is not
viable to use a single task to assess all students on a program SLO. This is a reason
for using a portfolio for direct assessment rather than having all students take some
sort of common exam or complete a common project. Portfolios are complex to use
and score, but a simpler alternative is not apparent.
In recent iterations of assessment (2008-2010 and 2010-2012 biennial
assessment report), the department has noted that some SLOs and the
corresponding assessment rubrics emphasize coverage rather than quality; and
coverage rather than knowledge and skills. The APR committee notes that the
complex, compound statements within each of the SLOs may need to be simplified.
Given the minimal core curriculum, it may be difficult for students to have
experiences/artifacts that demonstrate every base element of every one of the SLOs.
Self Study: Previous Academic Program Review and New Program Initiatives
Previous APR
The recommendations from the previous review included: 1. Publicizing programs 2.
Addressing the “chilly climate” toward women on the campus, 3. Increasing FTE
assigned to the SSP program.
The department has taken steps to address the first recommendation, but notes that
this is still a challenge.
According to the external reviewer, the noted “chilly climate” has largely been solved.
The WGSS department noted that while they are actively playing a role in bettering
campus climate, resolving the “chilly climate” toward women is largely beyond their
control.
The staffing for the SSP program remains at .5 FTE. The current self study makes
the case that there is a continued need for more than.5 FTE for running the SSP. The
WGSS Department has repeatedly put forth proposals for growing this position, but the
positions not ranked highly enough relative to other proposals to receive funding.
New program initiatives
Since the last APR, the main development in the WGSS department is the addition of
the Women’s Studies major program. The Department is working very hard to
identify and refine best teaching practices for accomplishing its goals.
The department plans to propose a Social Justice minor. Work on this was set to begin
in 2013-14.
Self Study: Personnel
Currently, the WGSS department has 5 tenure/tenure-track faculty and 2 IAS. The
IAS currently replace reassigned faculty making a total of 5 instructional FTE. Two of the
5 tenure-track positions were added to the Department recently under GQA funding
(2009 and 2011). There are several affiliated faculty from other departments on campus
that teach courses within the Women’s Studies major and minor programs.
Between 2006 and 2012, the SCH/IFTE ratio within WGSS courses ranged from 121
to 257. During the same time period, the University-wide SCH/IFTE ratio ranged from
285 to 324.
The self-study, previous APR recommendations, and the external reviewer all noted a
need for an increase in FTE assigned to the SSP program.
Self Study: Support for Achieving Academic Program Goals (Resources)
Physical Facilities
The move of the WGSS department to Centennial Hall has improved both office and
teaching spaces dramatically. There are no major concerns in this area.
Supplies and Equipment
Currently S&E budgets are adequate to support teaching, but inadequate to support
the very active research programs of three faculty. While they do seek grants, the
available funds are limited. Opportunities for external funds are scarcer than in past
years.
External Reviewer Recommendations
The external reviewer made several noteworthy recommendations - 4 were directed to
the WGSS department and 2 were directed to the University.
Department recommendations:
1. Make internship required, not elective.
2. Need for a more globalized curriculum.
3. Consider if the degree is more comprehensive than the term women’s studies
implies.
4. Examine whether sexuality receives sufficient coverage in the core curriculum.
University recommendations:
1. Convert SSP director position to 1.0 FTE and increase WGSS staff position to
provide a percentage of time dedicated to SSP development.
2. Current level of university support for Women’s Resource Center is insufficient for
a modern university. Consider dedicated staffing of WRC.
Department’s response to the Reviewer Recommendations
The department made lengthy, thoughtful, and detailed responses to each of the
recommendations from the external reviewer.
Department recommendations:
1. Seriously considered making internship mandatory, but sees valid reasons
against doing so.
2. Several ideas are in play for moving toward more globalized curriculum, but no
firm solutions are seen.
3. The Department is willing to reconsider the name in light of the great amount of
change that has occurred within the program since the major was originally
created and named.
4. Under consideration.
University recommendations:
1. Department supports this.
2. Department supports this.
Dean’s Letter
The Dean’s letter reflected confidence in the ability of the WGSS Department to meet the
challenges it faces. The Dean would like to see a more globalized curriculum, stressed
the importance of continued attention to enrollment management, and encouraged
pursuing the addition of a Social Justice minor. She also favored expanding the
internship portion of the program (reconsider making it required) and exploring possible
methods for counting supervision of internships as part of faculty teaching load.
APR’s Recommendations (must be completed)
Recommendations:
1. Continue efforts to advertise the Women’s Studies major and minor programs.
2. Modify the timing for assessing program SLOs to provide a more complete
picture of student learning.
3. Consider simplifying SLOs to ensure the breadth of coverage suggested by the
SLOs aligns with the curriculum for various paths through the major.
4. Develop a method for counting supervision of internships as part of teaching load.
This will make the SCH per FTE number more comparable to the all university
ratio. The Department should consult with Public Administration about this
matter, as suggested by the Dean.
5. Continue to manage the SSP program – continue to request staffing increases.
6. Continue work on developing a social justice minor.
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 Faculty
Senate/Provost’s Office in 3 years