Student Affairs Assessment Council
Minutes
July 18, 2012
Attendance: Rebecca Sanderson, Maureen Cochran, Jo Alexander, Tina Clawson, Rick
Stoddart, Luke Schalewski, Melissa Yamamoto, Kami Hammerschmith, Carolyn Killefer, Dave
Craig, Pat Ketcham, Gus Bedwell, Carrie Giese, Tom Watts, Jeff Kenney, Ruth Sterner, Rick
DeBellis, Kent Sumner
Departmental Highlights Report
Rebecca may be requesting additional information from previous years for the Departmental
Highlights report. As she combs through all of the information that was submitted, she is
attempting to depict a unified effort towards student success; this is an area in which we “undershow” our efforts even though we are making significant contributions. Great information has
been submitted, however, the volume of information is overwhelming.
Helpful ideas for next year’s report:
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Define the categories better so that there is more guidance as to what information is
needed in each area.
Provide examples
What conversations do we want to influence or create?
Honing in on how to truly demonstrate our contributions to student success will create more
work in the short term but will be more meaningful in the long-term.
Another area which is important for us to begin to demonstrate is what our staffing needs are
with the growing student population. In what areas do we need more support in order to
maintain and continue to improve student programming?
Retreat Follow-up
What’s Coming? Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP)
Link to PDF:
http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/The_Degree_Qualifications_Profile.pdf
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The DQP defines what graduates should be able to do at the Associates, Bachelors and
Masters levels. This profile assumes that learning is linear which is not what we
experience in reality.
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We are moving towards more of a “whole student” approach so don’t neglect the
emotional and spiritual aspects of student development.
Storytelling
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Storytelling is more powerful when it is used to support or provide examples for data.
Tell your stories in ways that will make sense to the person who receives it.
o How do administrators want to hear the story? For example, the Provost is an
Engineer and the President is an Economist; they likely want to see numbers
more than the story. Larry, on the other hand, is more interested in hearing about
how the department is doing, what challenges have they faced and what are they
celebrating, etc. He’s interested in a combination of highlights plus the story of
the department’s journey.
o Understand that if your story isn’t reflected in one report, that doesn’t mean it’s
unimportant or not meaningful; it just isn’t the venue in which that story needs to
be told.
o Be purposeful with your data; develop an understanding of how it is important
and in what contexts.
o Each department’s story and data will look different because we all have different
discipline-related standards that we need to follow (for example, Student Health
Services needs to meet certain clinical standards but the Provost doesn’t
necessarily need to see all of that information).
Finding Meaning in your Data
Tina shared with the group an exercise that she went through with the Recreational Sports
department that has proven to be very beneficial. Over time, Recreational Sports has redefined
what data is meaningful to them and it continues to evolve.
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They interviewed all of the employees in the department, asking what brings meaning
and joy to their jobs. What are they excited about at the end of the day? Figure out what
gets them out of bed every morning, then collect data on that.
Through this process, they found that there was a lot of agreement between employees
as to what they find to be meaningful.
Understanding where the excitement comes from may help us understand which
conversations we want to begin and influence.
This was a great activity which brought assessment to a comfortable place for a lot of
people in the Recreational Sports area.
Business Analytics Software
Rebecca attended a meeting about Business Analytics software that will be purchased to work
with the Banner system, creating automated reports. One area of potential that this opportunity
presents is the ability to upload card swipe data into the system to be combined with Banner
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data, creating a more complex account of student activity on campus. Having access to data in
this format would open the doors to many different options in terms of understanding the impact
that Student Affairs programming has on our students.
Review Process Revisions
Rebecca plans to have a proposal for a new review process for the next Assessment Council
meeting.
Next Meetings:
August 22, 2012
MU 110
9-10:30am
September 12, 2012
MU Council Room
9-10:30am
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