To: Department and Program Chairs
From:Penny Gold, Coordinator of the Institutional Self Study for Re-accreditation
Re: Departmental/Program Self-Studies
Date: July 1, 2008
As many of you know, the College is preparing for re-accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association—a process all colleges and universities go through every ten years. The evaluation team from the HLC will visit campus for three days in November 2009. Well before the visit, the College must complete an institutional self-study. The Self-Study Steering Committee made significant progress this spring, planning the outline of the self-study and the process through which information and analysis for the self-study will be gathered and accomplished. Now it is time to turn to the many constituencies that make up the college, asking for help in thinking about where we stand now and what directions we may take in the future. The attached guide is tailored for academic departments and programs; other versions are going out to administrative offices and major student organizations.
The Steering Committee is committed to making the self-study process one that is fruitful for the college community at the same time that it meets the requirements of the Higher Learning Commission. We decided to organize the self-study around the elements of the college's mission statement. The explicit goals embedded in the mission statement will provide guideposts for analyzing the accomplishments and challenges of the last ten years, as well as for looking to the future. We plan to model in the self-study a process of assessment: starting with the goals in the mission statement, gathering evidence to determine whether and how the goals are being met, analyzing the evidence, disseminating the results in the self-study, and then feeding back those results into the ongoing strategic planning process at the college so that we can further advance the quality of higher learning at Knox.
We are asking many of the areas of the college to put together small self-studies, each one reflecting both on a specific part of the college, as well as on the college as a whole. We will draw heavily on this material as we put together the formal, institutional self-study; in addition, all of the smaller self-studies will be available to the evaluation team when they're on campus, gathered in the Resource Room that will be set up for their visit.
Attached is a template designed to guide your self-study.Consider this as a guide, to be adapted as will best suit your needs. Included with the guide is a double-sided sheet with the college's mission statement. One side has the official mission statement as it appears in the college catalog and elsewhere, while the other side has the mission statement re-figured as a list of elements. Our suggestion is that you consider these elements as guideposts as you conduct your self-studies. (This material will also be sent to you in a Word document, to make it easy for you to use the contents directly.)
See the first page of the guide for details on how to get started, including the possibility of a funded retreat and a small stipend for the person leading your self-study effort. If you have any questions, or would like help in getting started on your self-study, just let me know, and I'll be happy to help out.
the process for academic departments/programs
(hereafter referred to as "departments")
Deadline for submission of self-studies:February 1, 2009. If you can submit your report earlier than this date, please do so—it would be a big help!
Getting started
- Decide on who will lead the self-study. While we anticipate that all members of the department will be involved in discussion, you'll want to designate one person to coordinate the effort and to be responsible for writing the drafts of the study; this might be the Chair of the department, but it could well be someone else in the department. The self-study coordinator will receive a modest stipend of $300 for taking on this task. (The stipend will be paid when the self-study is submitted.) We also encourage you to bring students into the process: majors/minors and/or students who are not majors/minors but who have taken introductory level courses. This could be as participants in the discussions, or it could be through surveys, interviews, or focus groups.
- Gather documents that will help you review the last ten years. Relevant sections of the 1999 college catalog and documents on mission/assessment from the 1990s are being sent to department chairs with this guide. Search your files for any other documents that will help you track developments of the last ten years, or that will serve as evidence for particular achievements and/or challenges. You'll also find useful information in the Encyclopedia Knoxensis, on the Registrar's web page, especially the links to "Enrollments" and "Major Tables."
- Block off some time for your department to accomplish this task. If you would like to use a day this summer, or a week-end day during fall term, for a small retreat, perhaps at an off-campus location (e.g. Prairie Inn or one of the B & Bs in town), there is funding available to cover rental of the room and a meal. If you would like to do anything that has a cost associated with it, let me know in advance.
Nature of your report: Your final report does not have to be in narrative, paragraph form. In fact, a report in list format, following the outline below (adapted as needed) would be easiest for us to line up with other reports as we compile them for use in our analysis.
Supporting documents: Along with your report, please send in any and all documents that you think might be helpful as supporting evidence for or supplementary to your report.
Departmental/Program Self-Study cover sheet
Date:
Department or program:
Coordinator of self-study:
Participants in the self-study (list all who were part of the self-study process):
List of supporting documents:
Guide for the Self-Study
WITHIN YOUR DEPARTMENT
1)Look over thelast ten years in your department. What were:
a)key markers (critical moments or events, good or bad)
b)significant changes
c)biggest challenges (and how were they met, or not)
d)biggest successes
2)Consider your mission.
a)What are the fundamental goals of your department? (Keep your list under ten items.)
b)Looking at the Elements of the Mission Statement (attached): How do your department's goals mesh (or not) with this list?
c)Consider what you might learn from the comparison of departmental and college missions. Are there ways in which the mission of your department is illuminated by the college's? Are there elements present in your department mission but absent from the college mission that you think could be more widely applied?
3)Assessment
a)How do you know whether the goals of your department are being achieved? What evidence/indicators do you look to? Is any regular method of review carried out? If so, how often?
b)If you do not currently have regular methods of assessment, this is an opportunity to begin--and you'll have lots of company! Pick one of your goals and implement a plan to examine it:
i)Design a means of gathering information that will enable you to see if the goal is being achieved, and include in your self-study a description of what you have devised. (The next two parts will be done later in the year; we'll ask for a report in summer 2009.)
ii)Gather the information during 2008-09.
iii)Analyze the data and make recommendations for improvement where the data suggests such is called for.
4)Thefuture
a)What are the strengths of your department that you will most rely on in the next ten years?
b)What are ongoing challenges that you face?
c)What new challenges may be on the horizon?
d)What important agenda items do you anticipate for your department in the next couple of years? in the next five-ten years?
We are also interested to know your thoughts on the college as a whole, beyond your particular department. (See reverse for next set of questions.)
FOR THE COLLEGE AS A WHOLE
1)Look over thelast ten years of the college's history. What were:
a)key markers (critical moments or events, good or bad)
b)significant changes
c)biggest challenges (and how were the met, or not)
d)biggest successes
2)Consider the college's mission statement.
a)Where are we doing well?
b)What elements need more attention?
c)On a scale of 1 to 10, how well does the college's mission statement express your understanding of the college's mission? (10 is very well, 1 is not at all)
d)What changes, if any, would you recommend in the college's mission statement?
3)Thefuture
a)What are the strengths of the college that you think we will most rely on in the next ten years?
b)What are ongoing challenges that we face?
c)What new challenges may be on the horizon?
d)What important agenda items would you like to see the college address in the next couple of years? in the next five-ten years?
Elements of the Knox mission
The mission of Knox College and its tradition of active liberal arts learning:
to understand and improve ourselves, our society and our world; to put learning to use to accomplish both personal and social goals
to increase access to all qualified students of varied backgrounds, races and conditions, regardless of financial means
to challenge students with high expectations and persistent demands for rigorous thinking in the pursuit of fundamental questions in order to reach their own reflective but independent judgments
to foster a lifelong love of learning
to foster a sense of competence, confidence and proportion that will enable us to live with purpose and to contribute to the well-being of others
These goals are carried out through:
our curriculum:
inquiry in traditional as well as newer disciplines
the integrative perspective of interdisciplinary work
skills of writing, reading, calculating and critical analysis
sophisticated research and creative expression
the character of our learning environment:
critical exchange of ideas
high expectations and persistent demands for rigorous thinking
supportive and egalitarian environment
informality and openness that mirrors our Midwestern surroundings
our residential campus culture:
encouraging personal, cultural and intellectual growth
a reflective, tolerant and engaged campus community
supportive residential opportunities
numerous student organizations
wide array of creative activities and cultural programming
intercollegiate and recreational sports
our community:
shared mission and values
a diverse community of students, faculty and staff
commitment to make learning matter at the level of the individual, the college and local communities, and the world beyond
Freedom to Flourish!
Knox College
Statement of Mission
Knox College is a community of individuals from diverse backgrounds challenging each other to explore, understand and improve ourselves, our society and our world. The commitment to put learning to use to accomplish both personal and social goals dates back to the founding of the College in 1837. We take particular pride in the College's early commitment to increase access to all qualified students of varied backgrounds, races and conditions, regardless of financial means.
Today, we continue to expand this historic mission and the tradition of active liberal arts learning. We provide an environment where students and faculty work closely together and where teaching is characterized by inviting and expecting students to pursue fundamental questions in order to reach their own reflective but independent judgments. The mission is carried out through:
our curriculum: combining inquiry in traditional as well as newer disciplines with the integrative perspective of interdisciplinary work; building from basic skills of writing, reading, calculating and critical analysis to opportunities for sophisticated student research and creative expression.
the character of our learning environment: encouraging the critical exchange of ideas, challenging our students with high expectations and persistent demands for rigorous thinking within a supportive and egalitarian environment, characterized by an informality and openness that mirrors our Midwestern surroundings.
our residential campus culture: encouraging the personal, cultural and intellectual growth of our students in a reflective, tolerant and engaged campus community through supportive residential opportunities, numerous student organizations, a wide array of creative activities and cultural programming, and opportunities for intercollegiate and recreational sports.
our community: reaffirming and extending our ongoing commitment to a diverse community of students, faculty and staff with each new hiring and admission.
Our aims throughout are to foster a lifelong love of learning and a sense of competence, confidence and proportion that will enable us to live with purpose and to contribute to the well-being of others.
Freedom to Flourish!
--approved by the Knox College Faculty, May 1993
--approved by the Knox College Board of Trustees, June 2008