Program Review of Geography Department at Central Washington University
Final Report of External Reviewer
Submitted by Martha Works, Portland State University
March 21, 2007
CWU’s Geography Department is doing excellent work training students in the areas of land use
planning and resource management and in engaging faculty and students with the local communities
and regional institutions of Central Washington. The department overall has excelled at connecting
with students, engaging them in research, and placing them in jobs or graduate programs. It has a
long tradition in the University and a faculty committed to the program goals of teaching students to
understand the complex human-environment interactions shaping the world at many scales from the
local to the global, and of engaging students in faculty research and public service. I spent one day
with colleagues in the Geography Department and met with all tenure-track faculty, two groups of
students, two fixed-term faculty, and the department secretary. The department does an impressive
job of balancing general education demands for their classes with specialized training of
undergraduates and graduate students (in the Resource Management – REM – program) for
employment in local and regional planning and resource management agencies. The work of the
department also fits very well with the strategic goals of the university, and particularly in providing
for an outstanding academic and student life, developing a diversified funding base to support
programs, and building partnerships with local groups and institutions. An evaluation of the
Resource Management Program (REM), which has significant impact on the workings of the
department, is considered in a separate document.
Curriculum
Strengths
The department offers a diverse curriculum that provides a broad introduction to the discipline of
geography and also covers more advanced understanding of the spatial processes of physical,
human, and regional phenomena. The department has done an excellent job in managing the time
and resource intensive offerings in the techniques part of the discipline (Cartography, Remote
Sensing, and Geographic Information Systems). Their GIS certificate program, unusual at the
undergraduate level, offers a suite of courses that train students for jobs in this rapidly growing
aspect of the field of geography. Geography faculty also incorporate Blackboard, team-teaching,
and field work into their teaching strategies. The Capstone course provides a common and
cumulative experience that allows students to reflect on the discipline and prepare for advanced
study or employment and also provides the department with a great opportunity to collect data for
assessment purposes. The department teaches multiple sections of 2 large general education
courses (as well as two additional GenEd courses) each term which serve as an effective recruitment
tool for the major. Geography is involved in many interdisciplinary programs across campus which
both engages a range of students in geographical concepts of space and place and the
interconnectedness of human and physical phenomenon and also serves to create interest in the
geography minor and GIS certificate program.
Program Review – Geography Department – Central Washington University – 2
Challenges
The courses listed in the catalog are a legacy of past faculty or past department foci and many
offerings listed in catalog not regularly taught. This detracts from the focus of the major and the
department, and is confusing to students.
It seems to the outside observer that allowing for the possibility of 20-28 courses in the 60 credit
major to come from outside the department undermines the core concepts one would expect from a
course of study in geography. Is this a function of ability to offer enough courses? Is this common
practice at CWU?
It appears that quite a lot of faculty time and effort goes into teaching the large General Education
service classes. Is this necessary to generate student credit hours for the department? To recruit
majors? Scheduling of large sections also limits time slot, faculty allocation, and room options for
300 and 400 level courses and creates conflicts for class scheduling of upper division classes in the
afternoon.
Maintaining consistency in course expectations and learning objectives for Intro to Physical
Geography and World Regional Geography (the two largest sections of Gen Ed courses), especially
since these courses are taught by several faculty members.
Learning objectives are not explicit on some of the course syllabi.
Recommendations
Eliminate courses from catalog that are not offered at least once every other year. Make sure, for
instance, that GEOG 492 (Geography Teaching Experience) is dropped from the catalog when the
teaching program is geography is dropped from the catalog next year (07-08) and that courses
proposed by faculty who are no longer at the university are dropped from the catalog. (Follow-up
to make sure that the Geography Teaching Major option is dropped from the catalog for 07-08 – per
my conversation with the department chair.)
Given that work load and work balance issues are at the forefront of most faculty concerns, the
department could consider managing curriculum more effectively to speak to the strengths of
faculty research interests, especially at the 300 and 400 level. More focus in the program, through
both program planning and reduction in number of courses listed in catalog, could help with work
load issues, student satisfaction, course scheduling, and program assessment. Coverage of regional
geography classes, while important, may detract from efforts to deliver a coherent and logically
sequenced program for majors.
Work with administration to explore options: IF department were to cut back on the large GenEd
courses in order to focus on program delivery at the 300 and 400 level, would this affect their
standing in the college vis-a-vis student credit hour generation or number of majors? What is the
appropriate balance between college demands for SCH and departmental initiatives?
Centers seem to be a distraction and unless this is a priority for the administration, the department
should concentrate on meeting student needs at the main campus. Work with administration to
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come to mutually agreeable level of participation by the department if continued participation in
centers is expected.
Make sure all departmental course syllabi have explicit learning objectives. Make sure fixed-term
faculty understand expectations for including learning objectives on syllabi.
Program Planning and Assessment
Strengths
The Geography Department has a yearly retreat to review aspects of their program and make
changes. The department also engages in ongoing review of curriculum, teaching effectiveness
through peer review and student evaluations, and work load management. Standards of faculty
productivity commensurate with college and university guidelines are outlined in their draft
statement specifying criteria for reappointment, promotion, tenure, and merit. One of the clear
strengths of the program has been its effective outreach to students and their efforts to engage
students in research, internships, and job placement. Student evaluations show high ratings for
geography courses and instructors. The department has hired several new faculty members over the
last two years who represent both departmental traditions and new directions and who will help
shape the program in the coming years. The department has worked to build the GIS, spatial
analysis, and resource management components of the program; all are areas where the department
has an established reputation and demonstrated student success.
Challenges
Goals as stated in the self study are rather broad and not specific to clearly identified concepts in
geography (physical processes, patterns and processes of human activities, spatial data analysis and
display, analysis and synthesis of geographic information) nor to areas of specialization for the
program. Articulation of more specific goals could give focus to program, especially considering,
for instance, the emphasis on resource management at the graduate level, or the stated focus on
watershed management. The strengths of the department are not represented in the goals.
In an effort to meet competing demands (REM program, GenEd, interdisciplinary programs,
contract work, supervising student internships, teaching at centers) program efforts may be bogged
down in meeting the everyday demands for time and faculty as a whole might have lost sight of the
kind of department they want to be.
The culture of department is changing without clear direction; at the same time, the culture of the
university is changing and business as usual will not work for the department. There is need for a
clearly articulated, commonly-held vision of how the department will grow and change, as a means
to guide future hires and program development, to assure success for untenured faculty and ongoing
professional engagement for tenured faculty, and to communicate with administrators.
Recommendations
Given the close working relationships with Anthropology, the shared REM program, and the joint
move to Dean Hall, consider making over the next 5 years the kinds of changes Anthropology has
Program Review – Geography Department – Central Washington University – 4
made over the last five. For instance, consider requesting your next new hire at the Professor level
and bring in an outside chair; consider long-term strategic planning as a means to assess
departmental direction and long-term goals; and consider strategic hires that build the program in
specific directions rather than on-going efforts to cover the breadth of the discipline.
Engage in assessment efforts (at instructor, course, student satisfaction, and program levels) that are
formalized and ongoing, consistent across all courses and faculty, and tie back into meaningful
change in curriculum and program. Clearer articulation of goals would facilitate assessment of
whether those goals are being met or not. Consider using the Capstone as a means to get student
feedback on the program. This is a great opportunity to get comprehensive student input to assess
how well the department is achieving its program goals. You could use a portfolio approach, and/or
exit surveys/interviews that include both quantifiable and narrative feedback. Use this information
to make ongoing, objective assessments of how the program is working to meet disciplinary and
departmental goals and make ongoing adjustments to individual classes and to the overall program
as necessary.
Faculty
Strengths
Geography faculty are engaged professionally and committed to student learning and professional
development. Research productivity is impressive considering the high teaching load. Three new
faculty hires in the last two years have contributed to the program through research and teaching
specialties that fit well with the strengths of the department (resource management, watershed
dynamics) and with important new directions in the discipline of geography (land use/land cover
change, conservation, and climate change).
Faculty have effectively garnered external support for research through contract work with local
agencies and institutions and have published results of that work in technical reports. The
department has long standing connections with local groups, and has worked hard to establish and
maintain those connections. This, in turn, reflects well on the department and the university, has
helped increase diversity, and provides good opportunities for student research, internships, and
jobs.
Faculty manage a challenging work load with 3 class per term and 5-day-a-week class scheduling in
some cases, undergraduate and graduate student advising, contract work, research, and professional
responsibilities. The department has implemented strategies for managing work load to maximize
blocks of time for research and other professional responsibilities.
Challenges
The department has experienced trouble retaining faculty in tenure-track positions. There are many
reasons for this including faculty leaving for other positions, high teaching loads, and failure to
meet department and university guidelines for publishing.
Faculty feel pulled in a lot of directions and express uncertainty about how the new work plans,
union negotiations, and what are perceived as new ground rules for promotion and tenure will affect
Program Review – Geography Department – Central Washington University – 5
their responsibilities. The teaching load and time scheduling constraints (with many courses 5 days
a week) saps energy and initiative.
There appears to be uneven participation among faculty in the work of the department. Not all
faculty are involved in graduate advising in the REM program, for example, or in active publishing.
Balancing out work load issues for individual faculty (how to allocate time between teaching,
advising, research, university service) and well as among the faculty as a whole is a challenge.
It seems that not all faculty are equally vested in a collective vision of what the department can and
should do. This appears to be related in part to historical patterns of interaction and to lack of
collegiality between some faculty. Uneven interest in or participation in department meetings is a
manifestation of this. It is hard to advance a departmental agenda without majority, if not full,
participation by faculty.
Recommendations
Make sure mentoring program for new faculty effectively prepares them for the retention and tenure
process, both to ensure their professional success, and to keep them as active, involved faculty at
CWU. The department chair should check in with faculty, and faculty should advocate for
themselves, to make sure the mentoring process is working (which as I understand it is: faculty are
‘assigned’ a mentor, but it is up to the untenured faculty to seek out help as they need it). If it is not
working, revise the system.
Untenured faculty need to clearly understand that while the publication expectations of the
university are not excessive, they are present and critical to their position. Retention and tenure will
depend on meeting the university requirements for publishing and professional engagement.
The department must assure that they are consistent in how they treat untenured faculty with respect
to retention and tenure; that is, consistent with both past practice and among the cohort of untenured
faculty.
Tenured faculty who are heavily engaged in contract work should put more emphasis on turning
some of their (non-confidential) work into peer-reviewed publications. Peer-review is the ‘coin of
the realm’ and the standard for evaluating achievement in the academy. Given the work load issues,
obviously something has to give for this to occur. Strategic long-term planning could be useful in
helping prioritize faculty time around a departmental agenda.
Faculty should also consider putting their considerable expertise and experience doing contract
work into a work effort that results in externally funded grants. This can result in more indirect
costs for the department, more opportunities for course buyouts, and will boost the visibility and
reputation of the department.
The department chair should continue to work to ensure equitable and reasonable work load among
faculty. Department as a whole should think about working toward a collective vision of what the
department can accomplish, try to assess the collegiality issues that might have hindered
departmental cooperation in the past, and come to mutual understanding about how each individual
will contribute to the advancement of the department.
Program Review – Geography Department – Central Washington University – 6
Department faculty, and particularly untenured faculty, should keep in mind that while teaching
loads at CWU are fairly high, the expectations for research are, correspondingly, relatively low and
not unreasonable.
Students
(Comments on the student section are based on two separate meetings, one a group of 5 majors and
another with a class of approximately 30 students. I asked about advising, scheduling, course
content and program offerings, adequacy of training and facilities for technical aspects of the
discipline, feedback from faculty on research papers, job opportunities, and department
collegiality).
Strengths
Students are enthusiastic about the geography program, about the faculty, the mix of classes
available to them and the training they receive in the geography department. They welcome the
opportunities for an applied approach to geographic inquiry made available through research
associated with contract work and internships in local agencies and often present the results of that
work at University symposia (SOURCE) and professional meetings. Students are reviving a
Geography Club which will focus on academics, field experience, and career interests. They
expressed high satisfaction with the types of jobs available to them upon graduation, the advising
they received about graduate school opportunities, the information available in the department about
jobs, and the kinds connections faculty had that resulted in job and internship opportunities.
Challenges
System for advising students is rational, but does not always work as expected. Students are
assigned an advisor by the chair, based on student interest and even distribution of work load among
faculty. However, as is all too true in my department and others I imagine, not all faculty care
about advising or do a good job of it. Students expressed concern that some of their assigned
advisors were not available, did not respond to inquiries, or demonstrated lack of interest in
advising. They said they often asked more approachable faculty for advice and were able to de
facto switch advisors. (The students made clear, however, that the majority of faculty were open,
easy to talk with, knowledgeable, and helpful.)
Students expressed concern about course scheduling especially at the 300 and 400 level and the mix
of courses offered for the majors. Courses often conflict, limiting choices for students. This is
particularly problematic if the required Capstone conflicts with other 400 level courses.
Many courses listed in the catalog are never taught which makes it difficult for students to plan their
program.
Recommendations
Select the faculty who enjoy advising and do a good job of it and form an advising team or group.
(It sounds like this already happens by default.) Relieve them from some other departmental duty,
or, if possible, consider this equivalent to 4 hours of service over the year and give them one course
release, and/or give them one of the GAs from the REM program. Reallocate departmental service
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accordingly, so that people less apt and inclined to follow through with advising take on other jobs
within the department. Check with other departments to see what works for them.
Schedule 300 and 400level courses to minimize overlap and give majors an opportunity to finish the
program in an efficient and logical manner. Use a time grid like Meeting Maker (or an Excel
spreadsheet) to analyze points of scheduling overlap and rearrange courses and time slots
accordingly to minimize conflict. This may involve adjusting some of the preferred teaching
times/schedules.
Library, Information Resources, and Facilities
Strengths
Geography has worked closely with Anthropology and with the administration to make the move to
Dean Hall possible. This is a great accomplishment and the anticipated move in Fall 2008 will
enhance program delivery and ease some of the space issues for the department.
The department has done a good job of providing the necessary hardware and software to deliver
the GIS and Remote Sensing courses. This has been accomplished through shared support for
software site license fees, efforts by faculty involved with technology issues, and through funds
from the department’s general operating budget. Lab facilities and access for students appear more
than adequate. Students have access to the computer lab for their course work and projects and can
get the appropriate GIS software loaded onto their laptops if needed.
Library holdings and access through electronic sources and inter-library loan are satisfactory and
seem to meet faculty and student needs for teaching, learning, and research.
Challenges
Faculty offices are not all in one space and graduate students for the REM program are spread over
several buildings. Current space for the program is not adequate; however, most space issues the
department faces will be alleviated by the move to Dean Hall. The department is relying heavily on
the anticipated move, which will improve communication with Geography faculty and graduate
students in REM, among faculty involved in REM and improved coordination of the REM program
will result in time and space efficiencies.
For the 07-08 academic year the department will have to make do with current space.
Recommendations
Continue to work closely with the administration and with Anthropology to ensure successful move
to Dean Hall.
Program Review – Geography Department – Central Washington University – 8
Future Directions
The Geography Department at Central Washington University is at an exciting point in their history,
they are about to make a major move to a new building, they participate in several visible and
important interdisciplinary initiatives across campus, they have built a well-respected graduate
program in Resource Management (with Anthropology) and a large number of majors, they have
hired three new energetic and collegial faculty, and have the opportunity to build their program over
the next several years. These factors combine to offer an exciting opportunity for the department to
move into new areas of specialty and respond to evolving student interests.
Since much faculty time in the Geography Department is devoted to the needs of the REM program,
many aspects of the external review of that program directly affect Geography. How the
department responds to that review will very much affect the department and also have impact on
some of the options or recommendations of this review. If for instance, enrollment management
and a non-thesis option for some students frees up some time for some faculty currently heavily
involved in the REM program, then more time would be available for other professional activities
such as external grants and peer-reviewed publications.
Recommendations
Curriculum
•Eliminate courses from the catalog that are not taught as part of a regular rotation, then take a good
look at the courses that are left and how well they serve the major.
•Develop manageable suite of courses that draws on faculty expertise and provides core
geographical concepts to students; make sure sequencing of courses offers students logical
progression through the curriculum and makes best use of faculty time and resources. Consider,
perhaps, program specialties (such as watersheds theme) that help focus course offerings for the
major and make for a more manageable repertoire of classes for faculty.
•Explore options (in consultation with the COTS Dean) about focusing more attention on the majors
and course offerings at the 300 and 400 level; find appropriate balance between generating SCH
with GenEd classes and providing advanced concepts to majors.
Program Planning and Assessment
•Establish a time line for tackling long-range strategic planning. The move to Dean Hall provides a
great opportunity to rethink physical space for the department and also how you might reinvent the
department with future hires, a refreshed curriculum, and new ideas about departmental culture.
How will department evolve and change with future retirements? What kind of department do you
want to be in 5 years? A strategic plan would facilitate decisions about future hires and help
communicate to administrators the direction the department intends to take.
•Explore the option of bringing in an outside chair for the next hire; this would take some pressure
off currently overloaded faculty who might be selected for future chair duties and bring new energy
and vision to the department.
Program Review – Geography Department – Central Washington University – 9
•Engage in assessment that results in meaningful, reflective changes to the program.
•The department, represented by the department chair, needs to effectively communicate with
administrators and tell the department’s story. It is the department chair’s responsibility to
represent the department in its best light; to use the chair position to advocate for the collective
good of the department, and to build and reshape the department in response to changes in the
discipline and in the university culture.
Faculty
•Continue to ensure work load balance for untenured faculty so that they are able to publish enough
to get tenure. Reinforce for probationary faculty the research and publication expectations of the
department, college, and university through an effective mentoring program.
•Work to resolve what appear to be gaps in collegiality among some of the faculty that might affect
departmental potential.
•Promote a department culture of lifelong professional engagement and work with tenured faculty to
encourage continued involvement in areas that increase the profile and reputation of the department.
Students
•Continue good work at promoting a student-centered program that provides so many opportunities
for job training and placement.
•Rethink advising system to give credit to faculty who seem to already be shouldering much of the
responsibility for advising.
Library, information resources, facilities
•Continue good work of supporting technology intensive programs. Work with administration to
assure support of hardware and software in the time, money, and technology-intensive field of
spatial data analysis.
Overall, the department should take the opportunity provided by this program review and by the
move to Dean Hall to assess the kind of department they want to become and work toward that goal.
They should assess curriculum, student learning, faculty culture, research agendas, and the
directions the department wants to take over the next several years. The potential for growth and
change is tremendous and the department is well positioned to take advantage of this opportunity.
They have a solid undergraduate program, an established GIS program, a committed faculty, active
involvement in the REM program, interdisciplinary connections throughout the university, and good
working relationships with major agencies and institutions in the region. A collective vision of how
the department wants to advance initiatives and good communication with the administration about
the work they are doing will serve the important function of making this very good department even
stronger.
Submitted by Martha Works, Professor and Chair
Geography Department, Portland State University
21 March 2007