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Middle States Update from President Keizs: Nov. 2018

Dear York College Community,

On September 27, our newly-appointed Middle States Commission on Higher Education liaison, Dr. Kushnood Haq visited the campus to discuss and make clear what is needed to submit the Monitoring Report (the Report) in response to the warning received from the Commission.  While the Monitoring Report Committee, composed of York colleagues, CUNY liaisons and outside consultants is ultimately accountable for writing the Report, there are three committees that have assumed responsibility for addressing the needed chapters in the Report. The committees doing this work began meeting during the summer (2018) and continue to meet regularly. The entire effort is being led by Provost Panayiotis Meleties and Dr. Debra Swoboda, lead faculty.

Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone directly and indirectly involved with this comprehensive work, which demands reprioritizing some of our ongoing responsibilities in favor of accomplishing this critical goal.

To keep you up-to-date with this college-wide effort that involves more than 50 faculty, staff and administrators, I have asked the committee chiars, Drs. Linda R. Barley, Timothy Paglione, and Charmaine T. Cruise, to provide a synopsis of their efforts.

The Academic Assessment Committee (AAC), chaired by Dr. Barley, includes eighteen department assessment coordinators representing every academic department, including the Library; and “are continuing the process of program-level assessment for the college's 50 registered programs. The AAC is reviewing the mapping of each program's learning objectives,” according to Dr. Barley. She adds that Mission, Goals and Program Learning Outcomes to the College's Mission and Strategic Planning Goals and Curriculum Maps signal to the overall academic assessment process and the programs' annual assessment plans and reports and the 5-year Assessment Plans are well underway. Academic department assessment coordinators are actively involved in professional development workshops, building the College's “culture of assessment,” are actively engaging program faculty to assess program outcomes, as they assess student learning.

One aim of this work is ensure that Institutional Learning Outcomes are reflected in both program learning outcomes and Student Learning Outcomes.

“The General Education Assessment Committee (GEAC)  has been in action since last summer to formally institute systematic assessment of the college curriculum that affects every York student,” says Dr. Paglione. He also states that, “As everyone knows, our students are required to satisfy the CUNY Pathways learning outcomes, and the GEAC has tailored its initial assessment activities to that end.”

Dr. Paglione also informed us that this fall, the committee used select lab reports from Biology 140 from Spring 2018 to assess student achievement of one student learning outcome from the Life & Physical Sciences domain. The team is also assessing student achievement in Information Literacy testing the learning through several Library workshop groups. GEAC members have been “very active in their home departments identifying courses and student artifacts (e.g., tests, projects, essays, etc.), and developing rubrics. All academic departments have been mobilized, and we are orienting the faculty to this new and unique college-level assessment routine, according to Dr. Paglione. Dr. Cruise tells us that, “the ongoing assessment of York College’s 64 administrative, educational and student support units is coordinated by theAdministrative, Educational, and Student Support Assessment Committee(AESSAC).  The AESSAC assists unit directors and staff, engage in systematic and continuous improvement of services, programming, and day-to-day operations to enhance student success and help the College achieve its strategic goals.” Dr. Cruise also reports that almost 30 units have completed, and “are in the process of, executing a five-year assessment plan that will have a transformational impact on the teaching and learning environment.” To continue the College’s efforts to integrate sustainable assessment practices, there are assessment workshops being held tailored to the needs of each committee’s charge. The next workshop is being offered by the AESSAC on November 15th, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., AC-2D01 so please add it to your calendar.

For more information, visit our site: https://www.york.cuny.edu/president/institutional-effectiveness/institutional-assessment-1/non-academic

Thank you all for your commitment!