COUNCIL ON ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT (CAA)
DRAFT MINUTES, FEBRUARY 29, 2012
UNH 107, 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Members present: Adrian Masters (Chair), Janelle Adsit, Deborah Bernnard, Sue Faerman, Amanda Farsace,
Ilka Kressner, Toni Naccarato, Greg Nowell, Ben Shaw, Christy Smith, Brian Stephenson Bruce Szelest,
Kevin Williams
Members absent: Gregory Albert, Jess Braunstein, Sean Rafferty
1. Call to order.

New member, Ben Shaw, from the School of Public Health, Dept. of Health Policy, was
introduced.
2. The minutes of the February 1st, 2012 meeting were reviewed and approved with minor
corrections.
3. Chairs’ Reports

CAA (Adrian Masters). Ben Shaw will be replacing Janine Jurkowski on the Council.
After previous GEAC Chair, Rich Matyi’s resignation, Deborah Bernnard and Greg
Nowell have agreed to serve as co-chairs.

PRC. The PRC has not met since the last CAA meeting, and there is nothing new to
report. The Committee will meet in March to review The Public Administration program
review documents.

GEAC (Deborah Bernnard & Greg Nowell). The co-chairs each reviewed documents
from one of the general education categories assessed in 2009-2010 (Europe and Global
& Cross-Cultural Perspectives). Both felt that the materials demonstrated that these
categories were assessed appropriately, but raised additional issues about the nature of
general education and the assessment process. One issue was the nature of the forms
utilized, so examples of previous and current forms were shown and discussed. It was
suggested that we ask Bill Roberson at ITLAL if he could produce a short video
explaining how best to complete the forms. It was suggested that the Director of
Assessment should do more to communicate with faculty before and during the
assessment process.
4. Director’s Report (Joel Bloom). The Director updated the Council on the progress of the three
upcoming program reviews (Political Science, Anthropology and Art/Art), as well as the Social
Sciences assessment currently taking place.
5. Old Business:

Last month’s proposal regarding having the PRC conduct a 3rd-year review of student
learning outcomes reports was approved unanimously with one abstention. It was noted
that next year’s Practitioner’s Guide should be amended to reflect the change.
6. New Business

Departmental documentation of student learning outcomes. The video from Brigham
Young University on having departments post their learning objectives was discussed.
Bruce Szelest mentioned that this fits well with other initiatives from ITLAL. The Chair
will run the idea by the senate and Szelest will run it by the Provost.
7. Adjournment: Next meeting on March 28th at 8:30 AM.