Elements of Department Selfstudy
This is an annotated outline of the elements to be found in a typical department or program selfstudy. Of course, not all these elements are appropriate for all departments, and it is not expected that every selfstudy will contain every one of these elements.
While it is not necessary to adhere to this outline exactly, it is a convenient way to organize the information, and if it can be adhered to the task of the Provost’s office in reviewing the selfstudy is greatly facilitated. Whether or not its structure is used, this outline may be seen as a checklist providing an overview of the major elements which should be included in the selfstudy – that is, a list of the important questions which it should answer.
As the department develops its selfstudy, the intended audiences should be kept in mind: the department itself, College reviewers, including administrators, and the external review panel. It is clearly in the department’s interests to present itself accurately and completely to these audiences. Most data requested need only be provided for the previous five years, except for student enrollment data which should look back over the past ten years to provide a better perspective.
This is a statement of the department's sense of itself and its goals and mission. These should be related to the mission of Queens College and the University. For reference, the current mission statement of the College is attached.
Note that Section 1, Mission, and Section 7.4, Future of Department, are connected with one another. A clear and thorough statement of the department’s mission makes a concrete and achievable plan for the next five to seven years much easier to conceptualize and to write. These “bookends” of the self-study are useful both for external reviewers and for internal constituencies, providing these audiences an understanding of the department’s raison d’être, its place within the curricular and programmatic life of the College, and its planned future development.
Provide here a discussion of the current state of the resources (human, physical, and fiscal) which are available to carry out the department's goals and objectives, and an evaluation of prospects for the future.
This should include information (including, but not limited to, total amounts) about and analysis of the department's sources of funding, both tax-levy and non tax-levy, including grants awarded to individual faculty members. The means by which faculty are encouraged to obtain external support for instructional and research purposes should be described in Section 3.8 below.
This is the place to analyze critically College and CUNY facilities, such as the library, film library, computer hardware and software, and learning resource centers, including their scope and their adequacy to support the instructional and research needs of the department's programs.
Discuss the effects of the current state of departmental and central resources on the quality and viability of the department’s programs, its students, and its research and scholarly activities.
Describe the current faculty, including their number, their teaching and research specializations, their publications and other scholarly and creative activities, and their teaching in the College, Graduate School, and elsewhere. Much of this information could conveniently be presented in tabular form. Current curriculum vitae of all faculty and any evaluations of the department by professionals which are on public record should go in appendices.
The composition and quality of the faculty should be analyzed with respect to the topics indicated, including their breadth of academic preparation, the range of graduate schools attended, the affirmative action goals of the College, their age and other demographic diversity, and their College citizenship contributions.
This topic has to do with the participation of the department in the life of the College, understood broadly, through service of its members in administrative capacities on committees and governing bodies, and in other capacities.
Describe recent faculty recruitment activities, including the search process and selection criteria.
Describe departmental procedures for the evaluation of faculty (and staff, as appropriate) for re-appointment, tenure and promotion. Mention specifically methods used to assess the quality of scholarly or creative work, teaching and other professionally relevant service. Copies of departmental assessment instruments (such as student surveys) should be provided. Knowledge of the criteria for evaluation is important for all promotable faculty and thus plays an important role in the ongoing life of the department. While making those criteria explicit is worth doing on that basis alone, the department should also describe, in Section 3.8, what arrangements are in place to help faculty meet its standards for promotion and tenure.
Describe the department's efforts to facilitate faculty development, in teaching and in research, including assistance in obtaining external funding.
Describe how which adjunct faculty are recruited, selected, supervised, and evaluated.
Particularly if a significant fraction of the teaching in the department is done by adjuncts, it is important for the department to explain how teaching by adjuncts is supervised and how their teaching can be improved and otherwise developed.
Normally teaching evaluations by students and faculty classroom observations are required for adjunct faculty. The procedures by which the department does this, and the results, should be presented here. This may be a particular concern when the adjuncts are mostly graduate students, who are normally selected for their research or scholarly potential, not for their pedagogical skills.
This is perhaps the most important section of the self-study, as it is here that the department analyzes and assesses its curriculum, the means by which it achieves what is arguably its main mission: the education of its students.
Present and analyze the history of enrollments for the past ten years, based on data provided by the Office of Institutional Research. This should include data on FTE student enrollments and on the number of undergraduate majors (plus minors if applicable) and graduate students.
Outline the contribution of the department to the liberal arts and sciences goals of the Division and the College, both generally as well as specifically for those courses qualifying as LASAR requirements or designated as Writing Intensive. Include a description of how LASAR and Writing Intensive courses are reviewed in order to ensure that the goals of the LASAR and English Composition requirements are being met.
Describe evening, weekend, and summer session courses the department offers. Include a discussion of how its offerings in these areas are monitored for quality and academic integrity.
Discuss contributions the department curriculum offerings make to majors in other departments, to interdisciplinary courses and programs, other special programs such as LEAP, ACE, Honors, etc, and to MA and Ph.D. programs.
Explain the academic, administrative, and financial roles played by departmental faculty in the programs of the CUNY Graduate School.
Describe the range of “special programs” offered to matriculants, non-matriculants, and students with “special” needs. This includes, but is not limited to, remedial and developmental programs for academically disadvantaged students, and programs for the physically challenged.
Outline the department’s program(s) for majors and describe typical path(s) of majors, gathered from transcripts as well as from current students. The requirements for the major should be analyzed with respect to the College's LASAR and general degree requirements and the expectation that students should study more advanced and cumulatively integrated subject matter as they progress toward graduation, and with respect to the diversity of talents and ways of learning in the student body.
Discuss the quality and effectiveness of advising for majors.
Include here, the frequency and quality of faculty-student interactions, for example, in student clubs for majors, at department functions such as colloquia, major days, or other special events.
Analyze the relationship between the department's major and specialized and pre-professional programs, particularly those subject to certification or accreditation by external agencies.
Include course descriptions in an appendix.
Provide comparisons of the department’s major(s) with those at other comparable institutions This information is useful for both internal and external audiences and gives substance to the department’s appraisal of the quality, etc. of its major. The department should specify the criteria used to choose the institutions with which to compare its major – select institutions both within and outside CUNY. The other majors should be analyzed and compared to that of the department.
Discuss the participation of non-majors in the department’s courses. If appropriate, describe typical paths of non-majors as they use the department’s offerings.
Describe the methods by which the department assesses the quality and viability of its courses and programs and determines how well they meet the objectives of the curriculum. Such outcomes assessment is increasingly emphasized nationally as such assessment provides important guidance to program improvement. Indeed, both Middle States, our regional accrediting agency, and the Department of Education of the State of New York mandate that we engage in ongoing curricular assessment. Departments not already engaged in assessment of the effectiveness of their curriculum should therefore be engaged in the construction of assessment plans. The first step in this, with regard to students majoring in a department, is to articulate what a graduate should know and be able to do; this is normally part of a department’s mission statement in Section 1. In this Section, 5.5, the department should then explain the procedures it uses to determine whether the curriculum is effective in achieving the outcomes sought by the department. Depending on the mission of the department, these methods (“instruments”) may include in-course evaluations of student achievement, capstone courses, and measurement of student attitudes and learning through surveys. Effectiveness should be measured for both majors and, if possible, for non-majors, and should study both currently registered students (for example, sophomores and seniors) as well as alums of the program. Help in contacting alums can be provided by the Alumni Affairs Office (Director , Joe Brostek, 997 3930), which can, for example, supply names and addresses, and even mailing labels, for recent graduates, and the Provost’s office can help with mailings. In addition, faculty perceptions of the program should be included. If surveys are used, examples of typical surveys can be supplied by the Provost’s office; these should be revised to be appropriate to the department’s curricular goals. Copies of the surveys or other instruments used should be included in appendices.
One of the most important aims of outcomes assessment is to use the information obtained to identify and correct deficiencies in the department’s programs. Describe how the assessment information obtained is used to improve the department’s programs.
This should be a summary and analysis of the career choices and perceptions of a random sample of recent graduates from the major, derived from mail or telephone interviews, discussions, or focus groups. This section should not be confused with Section 5.5 above. The goal here is to determine whether the curriculum successfully meets the needs of the department’s students. To do this, the department should identify those alums who have professional aspirations and find out from them which features of the department’s curriculum (and pedagogy) helped prepare for their current positions; which knowledge and skills continue to be of use; and what the graduates did not receive from the department, when they were its students, that they now find they should have had. Ultimately, the data collected from this process should be used to guide the department as it makes decisions about curriculum and pedagogy.
As for undergraduates, typically this information may be measured by contacting recent graduates of the program.
If the department plans no changes in its curriculum this should be stated. As most departments should be continuously thinking about improvements in their curriculum it is unlikely that no changes would be contemplated, at least over a five to seven-year period.
Describe and analyze, from the point of view of the department’s faculty, the department's strengths and weaknesses, proposed changes, and other areas of concern. Special attention should be given to issues regarding faculty recruitment and retention, especially with regard to women and minorities, as recruitment often plays a vital role in the future of the department, to the extent that it is usually more convenient to first discuss the five-to-seven-year future of the department and the specific actions, particularly the recruitment of new faculty, needed to achieve that future. Note that a clear formulation of the department’s mission statement in Section 1 will greatly facilitate the discussion here of the department’s future.
Describe unsolved problems and concerns about which an external review panel might provide counsel.