This issue reports on discussions and actions from the October
27- 28 Board meeting held at the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
in New Mexico.
SHARING
TIME IN NEW MEXICO
On
October 27, the Board shared its morning "Learning Session"
with Curtis Benally, Dean, Diné College; Larry Dettweiler,
Academic Dean, Southwestern College; and James McLaughlin,
President, Santa Fe Community College. These guests spoke
about their strategies to meet the educational needs of non-traditional
and underrepresented students. It became quite clear that
student-centered solutions to everything from admissions to
curriculum scheduling make the difference in retaining these
students and moving them toward successful completion of programs.
Later
in the afternoon, staff met with representatives of institutions
and peer reviewers while the Board met with institutional
CEOs. The meeting with CEOs brought home the seminal importance
in New Mexico of new state planning and policies and the impact
they will have on each public New Mexico college and university.
The Commission clearly will be responding shortly to changed
missions; reconfigured program allocations; and, probably,
multi-institutional initiatives. That evening, CEOs and peer
reviewers joined the Board and staff for a reception and dinner.
BOARD
AND ASSOCIATION GOVERNANCE
At
its official business meeting held on October 28, the Board
of Trustees welcomed to the table three Trustees for whom
this was their first meeting: Marlene Strathe, Provost and
Senior Vice President, Oklahoma State University; William
Trent, Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Ellen Watson, Vice President
and Chief Information Officer, Saint Louis University. The
Board accepted the resignation of and thanked Ron His Horse
Is Thunder for his service. He has resigned the presidency
of Sitting Bull College because of his election to serve as
Tribal Chief. The Board also acknowledged the resignation
of Robert Todd as President of the North Central Association
of Colleges and Schools (NCA) due to health reasons.
The
Board voted that Verna Fowler, President, College of the Menominee
Nation, serve the remainder of His Horse Is Thunder's term.
The Board also voted to name Ferol S. Menzel, Vice President
of Academic Affairs, Wartburg College, as Vice President/President-elect
of NCA. Menzel will resign her current position on the Commission's
Board (class of 2006) and her slot will be filled by the next
Board of Trustees election. Click
here to view the current Board of Trustees roster.
The
Board elected new members to serve on the Accreditation Review
Council, including new public members. The Board also validated
the class of 2009 of the Appeals Board chosen by the Institutional
Actions Council. Updated rosters will be posted to the Web
site on acceptance of invitations.
COMMISSION
FINANCES
On
the recommendation of its Finance Committee, the Board of
Trustees accepted the 2004-05
audit completed by Legacy Professionals, LLP. The
audit showed the Commission ending the fiscal year by adding
$582,719 to its net assets. This amount was significantly
higher than budgeted and resulted primarily from record attendance
at the 2005 Annual Meeting and revenues from new workshops
and from co-sponsored assessment workshops formerly managed
by AAHE. With the final depreciation of the major expenses
of the new database, the Commission was also able to invest
part of that gain in its reserves, ending the year with $2.4
million in those accounts. The audit firm reported to the
Board that the Commission staff had responded fully to the
management suggestions in the FY 2004 audit, and had only
one small recommendation on fixed asset reconciliation processes
at the conclusion of this audit.
The
Board also affirmed the FY
2006 budget that shows an anticipated increase
in net assets of $277,000 on revenues of $7.730 million.
INSTITUTIONAL
ACTIONS
The
Board voted to
ASSESSMENT
INSTITUTE
At
its June meeting, the Board approved in concept the creation
of a major new program to assist colleges and universities
in creating stronger and more effective programs by which
they assess student learning. At the October meeting, the
Board reviewed business plans created by staff and a small
number of Trustees, and the results of a recent needs analysis
survey conducted by a third party. The Board voted to move
forward with the Assessment Institute.
The
idea for this institute emerges from the convergence of (1)
continuous concern expressed by the Institutional Actions
Council about the ongoing amount of monitoring on assessment,
(2) the recommendations from the Assessment Think Tank and
subsequent response groups, and (3) the centrality of assessment
in the new Criteria for Accreditation.
The
Institute builds on the learning achieved from the AAHE/HLC
assessment workshops and the AQIP Action Projects. It will
involve cohorts of institutions that participate in a beginning
formative three-day mentored workshop and, four years later,
a summative three-day mentored workshop. During the intervening
years, each college will report annually on its success in
overcoming the obstacles identified in that first workshop.
The institutions will receive feedback from the mentors on
each report.
Click
here for more information about the Assessment Institute.
INTERNATIONAL
ACTIVITIES
The
Board learned that during the past few months, Commission
staff have engaged in several international activities:
- Mary
Breslin accompanied the first team to evaluate for affiliation
an institution headquartered in the U.S. but operating solely
abroad.
- Staff
held information meetings with delegations from China, Serbia-Montenegro,
Morocco, and Trinidad and Tobago.
- Crow
joined other regional Presidents/Executive Directors at
a meeting in Copenhagen with the Board of ENQA, the new
umbrella quality assurance agency established in the Bologna
processes. He also participated in an international quality
assurance conference in Chile.
Globalization
of higher education and the quality assurance provided for
it is moving at an extraordinary pace, and the Commission
is experiencing that pace almost daily.
DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION RELATIONSHIP
On
the eve of this Board meeting, the Commission received the
DOE staff analysis of the report submitted by the Commission.
The Board and staff were pleased to learn that the Commission
has been found to be in full compliance with all of the DOE
recognition requirements, thus bringing to a conclusion the
three-year conversation about the effective integration of
AQIP and PEAQ and the consistent accrediting decisions that
can be reached through such different processes. The hearing
on this staff analysis will be on December 7 in Washington,
D.C.
Special
Thanks for Peer Reviewers who have recently left the Corps
The
Commission extends special recognition and thanks to the Peer
Reviewers who have recently left the Corps. Click
here to view.
Note:
Institutional CEOs, CAOs, Peer Reviewers, and Data Update
Coordinators receive Commission notices regarding publications,
meetings and events via email, fax, or regular mail as a regular
part of their ongoing relationship with the Commission.
|
