Mānoa Assessment Committee
Fall 2014 Senate Committee report
The Mānoa Assessment Committee (MAC) was formed during the 2008-2009 academic year and
first met in the fall semester of 2009. This report of MAC’s activities for Fall Semester 2014
describes the committee’s purposes and major tasks, lists the committee members, and describes
the major activities undertaken by the committee during the semester.
Committee Purposes and Major Tasks
The purposes and major tasks of the MAC that were specified in the 2009 Senate resolution that
authorized the committee were to (a) establish assessment policies, (b) identify the most
appropriate assessment practices and uses, (c) review resource needs and recommend
concomitant budgetary applications, (d) liaise with the faculty to promote effective practices, (e)
consult with subject matter experts, (f) produce an annual report, (g) serve as a repository of
assessment activities, (h) provide consultation to the administration about gaps in available
assessment information, (i) recommend changes in processes, (j) review the usefulness of
assessment strategies, and (k) ensure that the Mānoa campus uses assessment data to inform
decision-making and improve student learning.
Committee Membership
The resolution authorizing the committee states that MAC membership should include nine
voting members (four from Arts and Sciences and five from other units) and four non-voting
members (the Senate Executive Committee [SEC] liaison, the Assessment Office [AO] Director,
an undergraduate student, and a graduate student). The voting members in the fall of 2014 were:
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Chairperson Olivier Le Saux (John A. Burns School of Medicine),
Vice-Chairperson Alice Tse (Nursing, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene),
Kaveh Abhari (Center on Disability Studies, College of Education),
Sang Yee Cheon (East Asian Languages and Literatures & Korean Language Flagship Center),
George Harrison (Curriculum Research & Development Group, College of Education),
Stephanie Kraft-Terry (Biology, College of Natural Sciences),
Adam Pang (Learning Assistance Center, Undergraduate Education),
H. Ron Riggs (Civil & Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering),
Amy Schiffner (Theatre & Dance, College of Arts & Humanities),
Olivier, Alice, Ron, and Kaveh were the Faculty Senators on the committee. The SEC liaison
was Stacey Roberts. Elita Ouk served as the graduate student representative and Stephen
Nishihara represented the Associated Students of the University of Hawai‘i. Monica Stitt-Bergh
and Yao Hill, faculty specialists of the AO, attended the committee meetings and contributed
much information and expertise. During this semester Alice was nominated and elected ViceChair.
Major Committee Activities
The MAC met 5 times during the 2014 Fall Semester plus an additional meeting will take place
after this report is written. The bulk of the committee work this semester was to prepare for,
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assess and write the feedback to the Annual Assessment Reports. Briefly, its activities included
the following:
Revision of Organizing Document: In the spring of 2014, a MAC subcommittee was
formed to review the MAC’s organizing document (i.e., by-laws) and made
recommendations for modifications. The MAC subcommittee comprised of members
Adam Pang, Dan Jenkins, Stacey Roberts, and Yao Hill. The committee discussed and
approved modified MAC by-laws in its first meeting of fall 2014 (see Appendix A).
Proposed Advanced Degree Program Institutional Learning Objectives: In the spring of
2014, the committee discussed and proposed changes to the current language Proposed
Advanced Degree Program ILOs. Under the leadership of Dr. J.K. Maeda (Associate
Dean, Graduate Education), the amended document was further reviewed by the
Graduate Council in October 2014 and the Graduate Chairs on October 17, 2014. In
preparation for Faculty Senate review, the MAC chair coordinated with Dr. Maeda and
with CRGE the final steps to bring the document to the SEC and Senate floor during this
semester. On October 29, 2014, the involved faculty and Graduate Education agreed the
document needs revision to include Hawaiian values and thus was not brought to the
Senate in fall.
Other assessment issues: The committee discussed possible actions to take during the
spring and fall 2015 on promoting program assessment across all programs: the steps to
be taken include identify programs in need (based on the annual assessment reports), and
provide mentoring support to the chairs and/or assessment coordinators along with a clear
set of actions and guidelines. A process that would include students in program
assessment was also discussed.
Programs’ Annual Assessment Reports. Annual assessment reports are submitted to the
AO each fall semester. Of the 238 academic degree programs, 100% submitted
assessment reports in fall 2014. Of those, 84% reported conducting assessment activities
in 2014-15.
A total of 107 programs requested feedback, with the important caveat that only those
programs completing 100% of the report were given the option of requesting feedback.
MAC members, in collaboration with the AO, provided written feedback to these
programs. The 107 assessment reports were assigned to different members of the MAC to
have each report reviewed for strengths and weaknesses, with an average of 11 reports
per MAC member and SEC liaison. In addition, the student representatives were each
assigned several reports. The final feedback forms were completed by November 5, and
then compiled, evaluated and, if necessary, further elaborated on by the AO faculty
specialists. A committee debriefing on the reports took place at the 11/19/2014 meeting
to improve consistency to the process.
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Appendix A
RESOLUTION TO APPROVE A PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A MĀNOA
ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE AS A PERMANENT COMMITTEE OF THE
MANOA FACULTY SENATE
(January 21, 2009; revised September 17, 2014)
WHEREAS the purpose of the Mānoa Assessment Committee (MAC) is to lead
coordinating and monitoring assessment activities and to develop assessment policy
directed at understanding and improving educational effectiveness, and
WHEREAS, the MAC will serve as a repository of assessment activities, provide
consultation to the Administration and relevant offices regarding gaps in available
assessment information, recommend changes in assessment processes, review the
usefulness of assessment strategies, and promote the use of assessment data to inform
decision-making and improve student learning, and
WHEREAS, MAC will work closely with the Assessment Office and Office of Faculty
Development and Academic Support, General Education Office and General Education
Committee, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and will have the
following responsibilities:
a) Establish academic assessment policies necessary to foster a campus-wide
understanding of and commitment to improvement-oriented educational
assessment.
b) Identify the most appropriate practices and uses for assessment of student
learning at Mānoa.
c) Review assessment resource needs and recommend concomitant budgetary
allocations by the institution.
d) Liaise with faculty to promote effective academic assessment practices,
especially in support of degree programs.
e) Consult with subject matter/content area experts as necessary.
f) Produce an annual report (due at the end of each fiscal year, June 30) to the
Faculty Senate on the status of academic assessment at UHM, and
WHEREAS, MAC will consist of 13 members: 9 voting and 4 non-voting members.
Voting members (must include at least two members from Faculty Senate):
 4 faculty from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, chosen to ensure
academic diversity
 5 faculty from the remaining Mānoa Colleges/Schools or Units, each from a
different College/School or Unit
Non-voting ex-officio members:
 1 SEC liaison
 1 faculty member from the Assessment Office
 2 students, one graduate and one undergraduate, and
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WHEREAS, voting members and the SEC liaison will be appointed by the Mānoa Faculty
Senate (MFS), the undergraduate representative will be appointed by the Associated Students
of the University of Hawai‘i (ASUH) and the graduate representative will appointed by the
Graduate Student Organization (GSO), and
WHEREAS, the voting members nominate and vote for the chair and vice chair of MAC
annually. Faculty members who plan to be on sabbatical shall not be nominated into the chair
or vice chair position. All voting members serve three-year terms, renewable for a maximum of
one additional term. After serving a maximum of 6 consecutive years, a voting member can
apply for membership after a break of one semester. The committee needs to ensure that there
is at least 40% overlap in committee composition over consecutive terms, and quorum consists
of a majority of the voting membership, and
WHEREAS, MAC reports to the MFS and the Chairperson has the following duties:
 Preside at all meetings and ensure that minutes are taken
 Develop an agenda for each meeting
 Appoint subcommittees as necessary
 Coordinate the writing of MAC reports
 Liaise with the Faculty Senate, administration, and the university community, and
WHEREAS, the Vice-Chair will perform the duties of the chair in the event that s/he is unable
to serve, and
WHEREAS, at minimum, this organizing document shall be reviewed, and amended as
appropriate, every five years at the end of the fiscal year (starting June 30, 2014) by the Faculty
Senate in accordance with Senate Bylaws. Particular responsibility falls upon the MAC to
periodically and regularly review this document in terms of its structure, faculty participation
on the committee, and the success of its resulting operations, and to report on needed revisions
to the MFS, then be it
RESOLVED, The Mānoa Faculty Senate approved the establishment of a Mānoa Assessment
Committee (MAC) as a permanent committee of the Mānoa Faculty Senate.
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