The BYU-Hawaii Institutional Assessment program — dedicated to encouraging each academic and administrative unit at the university to submit and update plans listing specific outcomes — presented its annual best practices awards during a March 28 luncheon to:
Biochemistry, the Campus Distribution Center, Career Services, Computer & Information Sciences, Housing, International Business Management, Mathematics, Purchasing & Travel and Religious Education.
In addition, Academic Advising, Security, Counseling, Accounting, Career Services, the Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach (CITO), and the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program won prizes for their poster displays in the Aloha Center; and Maureen Andrade won the Mahalo Nui Loa award "for her consistent efforts in assessment over the years, for actively engaging faculty in her department, and for providing 100% documentation for TESOL Department's ePortfolio."
"We've had a wonderful year of improvement, growth, and more buy-in from the faculty, departments, administration, and Student Life," said Dr. Paul Freebairn, Director of University Assessment and Testing. "We've seen a steady improvement each year in each area, and we've made some progress with the online portfolio system that the WASC accrediting team was very impressed with. They really liked what we're doing in that area."
Accounting Department chair and Professor Glade Tew, chairman of the Assessment Committee that includes six faculty and six administration members, agreed with Freebairn's views. "We're making gradual but steady progress from year to year. Since we started seven years ago, there's been great growth. One of the things that really helped is, as the WASC accreditation team observed, virtually everyone on campus is totally committed to the university; and because of that, people are willing to do things in all areas to try to have continuous improvement," he said.
"That makes things work. It makes us be able to grow and improve, and it's done by lots and lots of people," Tew added.
Dr. William Neal, Assistant to the President of BYU-Hawaii who oversees institutional research and assessment, added that this year's best practices awards were "timed to the visit of the WASC review team. We wanted to give them an idea of some of the good things that are happening on our campus. We had some excellent displays and good examples of what's being done, and some of them said we wish we were doing this on our campuses. You're further along than we are."
He explained that the assessment process at BYU-Hawaii began seven years ago when one college dean said "show me one department where they're using it, and it's working and improving things, and it will be easier to get my department involved. Now we've got 33 examples of where it's working," Neal said.
"Hopefully, that serves as a model across the campus. We appreciate all the many people who were involved in the process."
— Photos by Ian Nitta