At a special luncheon on May 1, BYU-Hawaii recognized academic and support departments that have used the university-wide assessment program to improve their offerings and services.
"Every academic program and several academic support programs have put together an annual assessment plan, and we also encourage them to create afive-year plan," explained Dr. William Neal, Assistant to the President of BYU-Hawaii.
"We wanted to identify some of those areas that have done particularly well and share some of their ideas, to motivate others," he continued. "We've been able to see and assess practices, where a department has taken a particular outcome, evaluated it, gotten some results and made improvements in the program as a result."
The departments and programs singled out at the luncheon include:
- Campus Distribution Center, for their efforts to improve customer satisfaction.
- Intercultural Studies Program, for using their plans to measure and promote student performance.
- Library, for conscientious efforts to improve services and resources for students and faculty.
- EIL Program, for completeness, punctuality and continuous improvement in developing a culture of assessment.
- Financial Aid & Scholarships, for increasing student satisfaction with key campus services.
- Academic Advising, for applying assessment principles to improve services.
- School of Computing, for 100% participation of all departments in completing annual and five-year plans, outcomes, matrices and sample syllabi.
- Also BYU-Hawaii graduate Johnson Mak, who's doing his optional professional training (OPT) at the university, for his work over the past school year in creating a BYU-Hawaii assessment web site.
Dr. Neal noted the web site lists all of the programs, their outcomes and annual plans. "When we showed it to the people from WASC [the WesternAssociation of Schools and Colleges, which is in the process of accreditingBYU-Hawaii], they said it was very good and asked where we bought it."
He also explained Dr. Paul Freebairn, Director of University Assessment and Testing, works closely with the program, assisted by a university assessment committee, with accounting professor Glade Tew as the current chairman.
"We started the program following some pretty heavy feedback from WASCthat we had no infrastructure for assessment. By Spring 2001 we started the committee, with [TESOL professor] Mark James as the chair, and we launched our first efforts during the 2001-02 school year," Dr. Freebairn said. "We now have about 60 academic and administrative departments that have assessment plans. Some have more than one plan, covering various programs."
"The luncheon was the idea of the university assessment committee," he continued. "As departments, we kind of get focused on our own things,and we don't see the campus-wide impact. The luncheon really was a celebration of these practices."
"Each year we meet with the chair of each of the departments and go over the results of the previous year, and the plan for the coming year. We give them suggestions, and consider ourselves a support arm," said Tew.
"Since the assessment committee was organized five years ago, there been gradual, steady improvement year by year. There are lots of good things happening," he added. "Continuous improvement is a key term."
Tew also said that "assessment is a very significant part of our WASCaccreditation that's taking place. When our visitors come again in a year-and-a-half, we're going to have to show that we are a university that practices assessment. We did well in our last visit. Now we just need to continue to improve."
To underscore how well we did during the WASC team visit in March, BYU-HawaiiPresident Eric B. Shumway recently shared some of the accreditors' comments at an alumni reside in Utah, including:
- Brigham Young University Hawaii is a mission-driven institution. There is clear buy-in to the university's position at every level. "That was one of the most amazing things. No matter who they talked to on campus, everyone knew about the prophecies of David O. McKay, they knew what the mission of the school is, and that touched these people," President Shumway said.
- I came to your campus with this team expecting to be impressed. I've come away inspired.
- I have seen tremendous improvement at every level of BYU-Hawaii since my last visit in 1996.
- I reviewed over 30 different syllabi from a variety of courses, both lower and upper-division. I was profoundly impressed by the intellectual depth and breadth of these documents. Perhaps I was expecting something less from a faith-based institution. They do demonstrate high academic standards.
- I applaud your returnability goals. We know of no other institution of higher learning that is working so energetically to help students return to strengthen their own areas.
- We found brightness and enthusiasm across campus in every department. Everyone we have talked to seems excited to tell us what they're doing and how they fit into the mission of the university.
"BYU-Hawaii is an academic institution of stature, rigor and responsibility," PresidentShumway said. "Thanks to so many good people who have worked in that direction."