On September 23, 2004, Faculty Senate Chairperson G. Faye Boudreaux-Bartels
provided the Faculty Senate with the following information prior to Mr.
Murphy's Presentation of his Academic Assessment Model:
Academic Program Assessment
Mr. Tom Murphy, consultant
Purpose:
* Measure effectiveness = function ($$$, quality, …)
* Fair, open & workable process
* Include information regarding resources, scholarship, service and outreach
that is not traditionally collected
*Showcase how URI offers quality education and adds value to state
Motivation:
* Previously, financial and quality evaluations were done separately
and combined ad hoc
*Economy ~ Program Contribution Analysis
(PCA)
+ Measures tuition/fee
revenues vs. cost
+ Used by administration
to identify revenue streams and cost efficiency
- does
not include quality, all research revenues, or non-numerical data
- dense
and complex; all but a few rely on summaries
*Program Quality Review (PQR)
+ BOG requires
quality of programs to be reviewed
+ Helpful in
identifying strengths/weakness -> planning
- Cumbersome, behind
schedule
Process:
*Several sub-committees made proposals to administration
*Jan. 2004 - President Carothers hired consultant, Mr. Tom Murphy,
to design an evaluation instrument
o Model uses a weighted combination
of several factors
o Easy to use, interpret, and refine
*Feb. 2004 – Academic Assessment Task Force planning mtg.
o Mr. Murphy, FSEC faculty, administrators, students
*Spring 2004 – Mr. Murphy interviewed faculty focus groups to identify
key factors
o Revenue – tuition, fees, research, donations, …
o Curriculum delivery
o Quality and innovation – coursework, scholarship,
…
o Impact on URI’s reputation
o Outreach and service
o etc….
* Spring 2004 – pilot (beta) test on a variety of programs
o Big, small, …
o primarily teaching, research, both teaching &
research.
* Summer 2004 – Mr. Murphy worked with Task Force to refine relative weighting
factors
o FSEC has been impressed with Mr. Murphy’s listening
skills, inclusiveness, and efforts to give a balanced representation of
multiple, complex viewpoints.