DATE:
May 21, 2015
TO:
Brad Seebach
Chair, Faculty Senate
FROM:
Barb Bennie
Chair, Academic Program Review Committee
RE:
Academic Program Review Committee Year End Report for 2014-2015
During 2014-2015, the APR Committee reviewed self-study materials, and created and
approved summary reports for eleven programs. Nine of the eleven reports were
presented to and accepted by Faculty Senate. The remaining two reports will be presented
to Faculty Senate in Fall 2015. The specific actions of the Committee are outlined below.
The committee reviewed self study materials, and created and approved APR summary
reports for the following eleven Programs/Departments:
• MBA
• Management
• Ethnic and Racial Studies minor
• Economics
• Information Systems
• Political Science and Public Administration
• Marketing
• Environmental Studies minor
• Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
• Communication Studies
• History
Thus, all completed self-studies (including external reviewer’s report and the Dean’s
letter) to date have been reviewed by the APR committee.
Other actions of the APR Committee:
• Responded to the 3-year progress report from Modern Languages.
• Recommended to Faculty Senate and the Provost the creation of a task force to
consider revising the APR process for accredited programs. An APR Task Force
was created with a charge from Faculty Senate to consider the APR process for
both accredited programs and graduate programs. The APR Committee endorsed
all recommendations from the APR Task Force.
• Piloted a revised version of the APR reporting form that came with the APR Task
Force’s recommendations. The new form was used for the Communication
Studies APR report.
• Approved an amended format for the UDS for reporting fiscal information to
accompany APR self-studies.
• Recommended to Faculty Senate that the membership of the APR committee be
increased from 9 to 11 and that a fixed meeting time be established for future
years. Faculty Senate approved these recommendations.
The Committee started the year with 9 faculty members; then went up to 13 faculty
members after the Faculty Senate approved 4 one-year appointments to help the
committee with the large workload. Two members stepped down from the committee
during the year. We successfully replaced only one of them and ended the year with 12
faculty members. One student member consistently participated on the APR Committee.
The APR Committee met for 55 minutes nearly every week of the academic year - a total
of 24 meetings. Outside of the APR Committee meeting times, every faculty member of
the committee reviewed extensive self-study materials and co-authored a corresponding
APR report for at least one program/department. Nearly all faculty members of the
committee reviewed self-study materials and co-authored APR reports for two
programs/departments.
I would like to acknowledge the quantity and quality of work that the APR Committee
members performed this year. I am proud of all that we accomplished. Please contact me
if you have questions or need any additional details about the APR Committee’s activity
for the year.