Present:
Scott Emmons, Sue Falco, Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, Connie Jo, Dawn Koerten (for Janice Miller), Helen Mamarchev, Jeff Merrick, Deb Padgett, Kim Pietsch, Connie Schroeder, Charles Schuster, Sue Stalewski, Tom Walker, Linda Anderson-Courtney, Gesele Durham, Dev Venugopalan.

A brief update on the upcoming NCA review was given by Dev Venugopalan who reminded Council members that a detailed progress report on two items – minority access and student learning outcomes -- is due in April 2008. He outlined his understanding of what is required in this report and how to make the report both more manageable and more meaningful. Some of these items are discussed below – general education and the APCC, WEAVE activities, individual program activities and institutional accountability initiatives. Dev and Laura Pedrick will be preparing this report.

Dev Venugopalan and other participants briefly discussed the recent Higher Learning Commission Assessment workshop that they attended in Lisle, Illinois. It was reported that institutional goals, program goals, and faculty development are common themes/needs of all schools and colleges as they move forward with a comprehensive assessment plan. One suggestion was that 5-6 general education goals be chosen for UWM and these goals could then be threaded throughout all our programs/courses.

Jeff Merrick discussed the process the History Working Group is using to study the Humanities and Social Science general education criteria, their assessment plan and 2006-7 report, and sample objectives from history courses. A copy of the September notes from the History Working Group on General Education courses is available on the UWM Assessment web site (www.assessment.uwm.edu). These notes will be updated as future meetings/activities take place.

Several UWM faculty and CIPD staff members as well as UWM’s two members of the UW System Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts will be attending a two-day workshop that focuses on course level general education goals and how to assess. CIPD staff will conduct sessions for interested faculty and staff upon their return.

The APCC subcommittee, in the context of program reviews, has taken a major role in reviewing courses with a GER designation. As a result several courses have been changed to enhance the student learning outcome components of their courses; other courses have been removed from the approved GER list. A sample of the process/matrix used by the philosophy department is available on the UWM Assessment web site.

A copy of the APCC General Education Requirements, including APCC Requirement on GER-designated Courses, Change in Requirements for GER Approvals, and General Education Requirements themselves are shown on the APCC web site www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/apcc. Committee members were used to read the Provost’s most recent message re general education advances (October 2007, UWM report, page 5, available at www.uwm.edu/News/report/).

The Deans of UWM’s different schools and colleges have been asked to appoint School/College/Department Assessment Coordinators.

A series of mid-November dates were announced for WEAVE on-line training and program data input. Program representatives and school/college/department assessment coordinators are asked to sign up for one of three events and come prepared to enter the mission statement and learning outcomes of their programs. The on-line training and program data input will take place in Merrill Hall, room 215, on Tuesday, November 13, from 10:30am-12:00noon; Wednesday, November 14, from 1:30pm-3:00pm; and on Tuesday, November 20, from 10:00am-11:30am.

Dev Venugopalan distributed a sample working draft of a voluntary university profile, the type of which that will most likely to be used by the UW System in the near future. He requested the Council members to review three assessment instruments: 1) the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP), the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), and the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP). UW System is requiring all of its universities to choose one of these to administer. The corresponding web sites are: www.act.org/caap/; www.cae.org/content/pro_collegiate.htm; and www.ets.org.

Please find attached a copy of the attached letter from the OPID Directors to the UW System Provosts inviting each campus to select four people to send to this NSSE workshop on Monday, Nov 12th, in Madison and paid for by OPID. The agenda is attached as well. Volunteers are being requested from the UWM Assessment Council.