Institutional Assessment conducts national surveys, campus wide surveys, and specific department surveys. As time permits, this office is on call to assist with the design, development, data collection and analysis as requested by members of the campus community. Priorities are given to assessments that relate to accreditation, continuous improvement, and student analysis and satisfaction studies.

The Mission of the Office of Institutional Assessment is to support institutional decision-making for operational and strategic planning, continuous improvement and accreditation; to provide leadership for the development and implementation of a system approach to data collection by conducting surveys and studies related to the university’s effectiveness and quality indicators; provide research study design support for University assessments that incorporate longitudinal value-added studies.

The Vision of the Office of Institutional Assessment is to become an essential part of the University’s decision-making process by providing accurate and timely information to meet the University goals for continuous improvement and accreditation.

The Goals of Institutional Assessment is to be a mechanism for identifying areas for change and institutional improvement. It operates as an essential part of the University’s decision making process by providing accurate and timely quantitative and qualitative information to meet the University goals for continuous improvement and accreditation.

1. Enhance institutional assessment efforts by providing complementary, university-wide assessment initiatives for academic departments and student support services:

• Provide information to support specialized accreditation/
  reaccreditation processes
• Provide survey services to divisions and units
• Gather and summarize comparative information from current and aspirational peer institutions based on national surveys
  

2. Design and implement assessment research projects based on institutional goals.

a. Collect, analyze and interpret student and university operational data to support an evidence based environment using national comparative studies.

• CIRP
• NSSE – with over sample
• FSSE
  

b. Collaborate with Advancement and Alumni Relations and other internal units to update databases and conduct internal studies.

• Alumni Survey
• Administrative Services Survey
• Housing and Dining Survey
  

c. Coordinate assessment activities as they relate to identified AQIP Projects (including the development and administration of survey instruments to measure University culture).

• Faculty and Staff cultural/climate and development
• Communication
• Customer Focused Service
• Student Centered Programming
  

d. Prepare user-friendly reports based on the information collected for strategic or operational planning, setting institutional policies and making academic and management decisions at all levels of the University.

• Prepare Summative/Comparative reports for dissemination to the University Community
• Provide routine assessment information to be used as a catalyst for continuous improvement, best practices identification and accreditation measurement requirements
• Hold town hall meetings and focus groups to disseminate information and clarify understandings and needs
• Prepare and deliver presentations for regional and national conference