What I learned on my trip to Texas
Hospitality/aesthetics, etc.
Met at baggage claim at the airport by a campus vice president holding a sign with my name on it
There were three college personnel and two SACS reviewers in the car. They had an ice chest with waters for us.
We went immediately to our first campus visit and were greeted by a cadre of people. We were treated to a very nice luncheon – hot entrée/ salad/dessert/ tea – and then took a tour of the campus. They had a workroom available to us on campus in case we needed one and they offered several times to summon anyone we specifically wanted to see. They then took us to a center for a tour. There they had folders with documents about the center and again made available anyone we wanted to see.
After our campus tours, they took us to the hotel. There were gift baskets and six bottles of water for each of us in our rooms. The gift basket included small snacks: cereal bars, bags of nuts, a couple of candy bars, gum, mints – things one might need when traveling: chap stick, lotion, tissues – and tons of branded stuff: a tee shirt, a thermos, a water bottle, two flash drives, a paper weight, a small towel, a computer keyboard duster, a flashlight, a keychain, a pen & pencil set, other pens.
The first committee meeting was in the hotel. There was a workroom set up there with computers, flash drives and portfolios (branded) with the calendar as well as a contact sheet with all executive staff pictures. They had blue name tags for each of us. All LoneStar staff had white name tags. The tags were magnetic and very easy to read.The workroom was outfitted with coffee mugs (branded), a coffee station, baskets with chips, coolers with drinks. Our first meetings each morning were held in the hotel workroom. There were Danish, fruit, yogurt, bagels as well as all the other stuff. All of the materials that had been mailed to us were also in the workroom. NOTE: it would have been nice if I had known the materials would be onsite, because I lugged them all there.
The workroom in the offices had laptop computers, printer, cold drink (branded) containers, iced drinks, fruit, danish, chips, chocolate, jolly ranchers and mints at each place, tent cards, flash drives. All the printed materials were in that workroom, too.
Each day a lunch buffet – hot entrée, salad, dessert, tea - was served for us to have lunch in the workroom or meet with specific people during lunch.
Each evening we were driven to the hotel and then out to dinner and back to the hotel. We were picked up each morning and greeted at the sidewalk leading to the building.
The Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs was the contact for everything logistics-wise. She delegated, of course, but every need went through her. We were certainly able to ask others for things like syllabi, position descriptions, and other documentation, but the initial document requests prior to the visit all went through the committee chair to the Senior VC.
The on-site team focused on recommendations made by the off-site team. We tried to have those issues resolved and a draft response to the committee chair prior to the visit. If we could not resolve the issue through what they provided in the focus report, we made requests for documents and/or people to be available once we were on-site. Everyone had an assignment related to the QEP, and initial responses to the QEP were given to the lead evaluator prior to the visit. The committee met for a two hour conference call prior to the visit to determine what recommendations still needed to be addressed and where people stood on their QEP evaluations.
Things to watch!
We did make a recommendation on qualified faculty. The project was mammoth. In their focus report they had to provide documentation for hundreds of faculty that were called into question by the off-site team. By the time we left, we had it down to nine faculty members that did not have documentation to show that they were qualified to teach their assigned courses. (As I recall there were several attorneys who were teaching political science courses). There was much discussion on how to maintain these records which should be fluid documents that are reviewed every semester as course loads/course assignments change. At one institution, there are two files for every faculty member: a personnel file with everything you would expect a personnel file to have and a credentialing file. Everything in the credentialing file is color scanned and placed in an electronic file duplicating the paper file. The information from the file is in a database. Every time there is a change of any kind, it is documented, stored, and uploaded to the database. The files are reviewed every semester.
Qualified staff – Be sure there are job descriptions for each position and that the person in the position meets at least the minimum requirement.
Assessment – How are assessments informing the programs, administration, etc. What is done with the data? What changes have been made because of assessment? What is done with the CCSSE data? There needed to be documentation of how the data were used.
Number of full time faculty – there is no magic formula. What is important is that it can be shown that there are full time faculty in each area (disaggregate by discipline) and that there is oversight by department heads or full-time faculty to ensure adherence to approved course syllabi, textbooks, learning objectives, etc.
Qualified administrative and academic officers: Qualifications in job descriptions should match those of the person in the position. Be sure to document (resumes) if that is not the case. If someone does not have the preferred degree level but does have the experience to compensate, be sure it is documented.
Student Achievement: Document methods used to measure student success, and document when/how they are analyzed and how they are used to inform strategies.
Student Complaints: Be sure to have examples of complaints that went through the entire process. Also, be sure to have examples of all types of complaints. Go through the student handbook to be sure all types of complaints are outlined there.
Recruitment materials: Be sure that the mission is consistent.