DRAFT
11/5/2000
CRITERION 3
INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of a new century, the North Dakota University
System, The State Board of Higher Education, and the
institutions that comprise the state's public higher education
system are beginning a new mission and set of educational and
other purposes derived from a statewide planning group composed
of legislators, educators, students in higher education, business
and agricultural entrepreneurs and lay persons from across the
state that was called The Roundtable. Their investigations and
discussions resulted in a report to the legislature and the people of
North Dakota that has been adopted by the SBHE, the NDUS,
and the institutions that comprise the System. The Report
identifies six purposes, called Cornerstones, and the
"accountabilities" attached to them as the directions for the state,
its higher educational system, and its citizens for the 21st century.
[See Roundtable Report ]
At Valley City State University the new strategic plan that is
currently in development will use the Cornerstones as the basis
for the university's direction, its educational and other purposes,
and the adoption of the accountabilities as the goals for its
activities.[See 2000 Strategic Plan]
Since the 1992 and 1996 visits by NCA teams, Valley City State
has gone through substantial changes in addition to the most
recent adoption of the Roundtable goals. A number of major
changes have occurred in the positions shared between Valley City
State and Mayville State. In 1996 the following university
positions were shared: president, vice president for academic
affairs, vice president for business affairs, comptroller, financial
aid director, director of physical plant, grants and contracts
officer, director of cooperative education, and the human resources
administrator. Since 1996 some changes have occurred, perhaps
the most significant of which is the fact that Valley City State
University and Mayville State University each have a full-time
vice president for academic affairs. In the fall of 1998, following
the resignation of Dr. Ray C. Brown, Vice President for Academic
Affairs for both VCSU and MaSU, each campus appointed an
acting academic dean. Valley City State University appointed Mr.
Dwight Crabtree, Chair, Division of Business and Technology, to
the position of acting academic dean. In the fall of 1999 Valley
City State University hired Dr. Leslie Wong as full-time vice
president for academic affairs.
Other positions, once shared with MaSU have been redesigned to
provide a full-time position at each campus. These include the
following: director of physical plant (date?) and the human
resources administrator (date?). In addition, changes have
occurred with the positions of grants and contracts officer and the
director of cooperative education (get dates and verification).
Among the "Concerns" noted in the '96 report, the faculty and staff
are still overworked and stressed as a result of economic limits
and the recent changes in mission, purposes, and planning
requirements. They are, however, meeting the challenges of the
times successfully. The university community does believe that
VCSU is accomplishing its educational and other purposes as
defined by the SBHE, NDUS, and the university's mission
statement. The university’s strategic plan identifies the
educational and other goals and the timelines and methods for
attaining them . The degree to which these goals are achieved is
demonstrated through various assessment tools including
employer satisfaction surveys, graduate surveys, student
satisfaction surveys, faculty and staff surveys, standardized test
results, and the student CD-ROM portfolios created by each
student for his/her major subject area and the general education
abilities.
As VCSU reaches the beginning of a new strategic planning cycle,
the university is faced with a new SBHE directive. During the
academic year 1999-2000 a group of professionals representing a
wide variety of interests in North Dakota met and held forums
across the state. The intent of the meetings was to gather input
related to economic development across the state. The resulting
report, The Roundtable Report, includes a set of goals and
accountability measures called the “Cornerstones.” The
university’s strategic plan for 2001-2007 is currently being
developed and must be directly related to the Cornerstones. The
accountability measures included in the new strategic plan will
become an integral part of the university’s on-going assessment
plan. The methodology for assessing the success or failure of such
a strategic plan has yet to be developed. The draft of the new
strategic plan is due December 2000 and will include benchmarks
as well as accountability measures. [Baselines, Report to
Investors, Roundtable] [December 2000 draft]
The university has identified eight abilities [See abilities in
reference room] as measures for successful accomplishment of the
educational purposes of each program for each student. The
primary assessment tool VCSU intends to utilize to determine
whether our academic program goals are reached for each student
is the required CD-ROM portfolio that must be completed by the
end of the senior year. The CD-ROM portfolio is the
demonstration of these abilities and their related skills. The
methods for assessing and evaluating the CD-ROM for each
student are in the process of development and testing by each
academic department. While the abilities are constant, the means
used to demonstrate them will vary for each student and each
major and minor; this means that the evaluation by each
department will require an individualized process within the
general evaluative schema. NB--DEVELOP SOME EXAMPLES
OF PROCESS Since this testing process will take several
graduating classes, we assume that a follow-up focus visit will be
needed to examine this on-going activity. Other more traditional
assessment methods will also be used to determine the success
rate of our departmental programs and the students enrolled in
them, and are developed in the sections of the discussion of
Criterion 3 below. In brief, VCSU will have an effective design for
ensuring that the educational purposes defined in its mission
statement are being attained by 2002. [See university bulletin]
PART I
EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
State and regional educational purposes
Cultural what we're doing (attendance figues, visiting
artists, performances)do we measure these to determine success?;
what we think will work; traditional methods;
Economic
Social
Technological
Academic purposes
Institutional-mission statement and goals
Programs - academic divisions
Division of Communication and Social Sciences
The Division has adopted the assessment plan identified in the
2000 Strategic Plan for the university with the modifications
appropriate to each program area in the division's offerings. Each
student's progress or problems is identified at the time the
student enters a major; each student has a faculty advisor within
the division who maintains a continual monitoring of the student's
academic development.
[insert divisional narrative and program reviews of
departments]
Division of Fine Arts
Division of Education and Psychology
Division of Business and CSI