Academic Program Review 2007-2008
Executive Summary
Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences was included in the sixth cycle of academic
program review for the 2007-2008 academic year. Included in the program review process was
the composition of a self-study document based on faculty’s analysis, a departmental retreat
where the data were reviewed and the final two sections discussed, and a visitation by external
reviewers. Dr. Virginia Clark Johnson and Dr. John Crossley, served as the external reviewers,
read the self-study, interviewed faculty, staff, administration, and students, and submitted a
separate analysis.
The departmental self-study completed by the faculty and staff is the major document for this
program review. This complex document reveals the strengths and challenges through the
departmental perspective and reflects the commitment of the department for self-analysis,
reflection, and evaluation. The institutional expectation is that the department and college
administration will use the self-study document, the dean’s report, and the executive summary as
guides to the faculty, staff, and administration for the next several academic years as the
department addresses the recommendations and continues its record of excellence.
Since this process requires an enormous amount of time and effort from all of the participants, it
is necessary to ensure that the results are used to inform decisions and future course of actions.
Therefore, the department faculty and college administration will be expected to provide a
summary of activities undertaken during the 2008-2009 academic year as a consequence of the
program review. This report will be due to the provost in October, 2009.
It should be noted that Dr. Clark Johnson’s and Dr. Crossley’s analysis was detailed and, along
with the dean’s report, provide the depth and context for the faculty and administrators to
celebrate commendations and also move ahead in addressing noted challenges and
recommendations.
Commendations
The self-study document as submitted by the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences was
understandable and informative. It can be determined from reading the self-study report, the
observations of the reviewer, and the summary comments of the college dean that the department
has several strengths and challenges. It should also be concluded that the department is integral
to the mission of the college and university and should be commended in the following areas:
Faculty:
Faculty of the Department of Family And Consumer Sciences are vital members of the College
of Education and Professional Studies and the Central Washington University campus
community. Faculty were mentioned by students and by the reviewers for exhibiting a high level
of expertise, credentials, and practical experience in their respective fields. Family and
Consumer Sciences faculty have consistently demonstrated productivity in teaching, service, and
scholarship. The department and college should continue to make a concerted effort to retain
current faculty and recruit faculty in the future that display such positive attributes. The
department chair was mentioned as an asset to the department and should be commended for her
efforts on behalf of her faculty and the programs she represents.
Student Orientation:
Department faculty seem highly engaged with students through courses, service learning
experiences, and other programs. It is clear that a major departmental focus is to develop student
learning in a variety of practical and meaningful ways. Faculty should be encouraged to
continue these approaches. Evidence was also provided as to several student achievements in all
departmental programs over the period of review. This is positive and should be accentuated in
promotional literature and through other forms of dissemination.
Recommendations
Although the department should be commended in areas, there are also areas for improvement.
Following are areas that should be addressed to improve the functioning and quality of the
department and its associated programs:
Curriculum and Staffing:
The department offers a multitude of undergraduate (5) and graduate (1) degrees, minors (6),
and certificate programs. The department also recently added Wine Studies as another
undergraduate degree option this past academic year. There needs to be discussion based on
number of faculty, student majors and program graduates as to the viability and necessity of each
program from a resource standpoint. It is difficult to offer one- or two-person programs. This
creates barriers in programmatic delivery, advising, and recruitment to mention a few. Also,
there needs to be some consideration of the consolidating of curriculum where possible. Courses
that can achieve common departmental and programmatic goals across all or most programs
should be developed to streamline the number of courses offered as well as make better use of
limited faculty resources. This type of an analysis and curriculum improvement is needed if the
department hopes to continue to adequately support the vast number of undergraduate, graduate,
and certificate programs offered.
It is clear from past internal correspondence and from reviewer comments that the Interior
Design program should be phased out. The academic integrity of this program is suspect as
there is no set curriculum or requirements. In addition, there is no tenure-line faculty assigned to
this program. Technology and equipment is limited and the standards that have been used to
design the program have been deemed out-of-date by the reviewer. The same consideration
(phasing out) needs to applied to the Apparel Studies emphasis for the same reasons as the
Interior Design emphasis.
Suggestions by the external reviewer (Dr. Crossley) toward the Recreation and Tourism
programs in improving curriculum should be highly considered and implemented in a timely
manner. Aligning NRPA standards to departmental courses is good practice whether or not the
department and program actually seek national accreditation. It is clear that if the program were
to seek initial accreditation, much work exists in assuring that syllabi are to up to NRPA
standards, curriculum is fully aligned to those standards, catalog descriptions are aligned with
content listed in course syllabi, assessment is conducted to determine whether students achieve
those standards, and changes are being made based on that assessment process.
The development of advisory committees made up of various constituencies by program is
suggested to obtain greater guidance with regard to curriculum and other programmatic matters.
This can be by combining internal and external constituents or by creating separate groups.
The various ideas (particularly related to program, faculty, and curriculum consolidation)
provided by the reviewers and Dean should be considered and analyzed for viability and
department action. All of these efforts will help in defining and improving resource constraint
and faculty and chair over-commitment issues.
Assessment:
Although the department recently set departmental goals and developed plans for assessment, no
systematic student learning data was provided to demonstrate student goal attainment in this
review. A concerted effort must be made in the future to collect, analyze, and discuss
assessment data for each academic program and as a department. Results should be explicitly
linked to programmatic and student learning outcomes and include interpretation. Data should
also be compared to established standards of mastery and be disseminated and discussed with
various stakeholders (students, faculty, administrators, advisory groups). These processes should
be firmly in place before accreditation applications (i.e., Recreation & Tourism) are made. In
addition, comparisons as to delivery mode (web vs face-to-face) and approach (courses taught
through Cornerstone vs campus) need to be further examined as to the efficacy and future
continuation of each.
Facilities & Equipment:
A short- and long-term plan needs to be created by the department and in consultation with the
college in terms of obtaining, renovating, and updating space, equipment, and technology. This
is an aspect mentioned by the reviewers and the department itself as an area of need. A plan to
achieve specific goals related to each will have great potential in advancing departmental
programs and student learning.
Summary
Overall, the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences is an important part of Central
Washington University. Faculty are energetic and dedicated in terms of students and their
learning. Faculty engage in service and conduct meaningful scholarship. The department should
strive to improve in terms of assessing programs and in analyzing and improving current
curriculum and staffing configurations to minimize faculty overload and improve programmatic
integrity and alignment to national standards. By examining its curriculum, improving its
assessment processes and planning as related to space, equipment, and technology, the
department has great potential in achieving its goals and those of the college, and university.