Trustees focus on students
Friday, all of the decision-makers for Utah State University were brought together to discuss how to improve the university experience for the students.
“Boards of trustees and university administrations are here for the students,” said university Provost Stan Albrecht. “The importance of the things we talk about is to try to improve the quality of the university for the benefit of the students.”
Foremost on the meeting’s agenda was a presentation of ongoing efforts to improve assessment at the university. Albrecht said assessment at the universitywide level is determining what the school’s goals are as an institution and then assessing how well they are meeting those goals.
To sum up the university’s goals on the education of its students, Board CChairman Gayle McKeachnie said, “The purpose of education is not to fill the vessel but to light to the fire.”
Besides discussing the direct effects this assessment has on the quality of education for the students, the board also discussed how assessment plays into the university’s upcoming re-accreditation bid in 2007.
A presentation outlined the current efforts being made by the university to improve assessment. According to the presentation, the university is currently attempting to conduct more thorough surveys of incoming freshmen, outgoing seniors, and graduate students to determine just how much difference a USU education is making to them.
The surveys even go a step further by interviewing USU alumni to determine how their college education affects their employment.
The presentation also displayed future plans to improve assessment, which includes better faculty and course evaluations which may be conducted online. In the future, these evaluations will be more involved in the decision-making process than they presently are, the presentation said.
The presentation also showed how the university plans to incorporate each individual department into the assessment process. Each department should have a mission statement, a list of goals and should be involved in measuring how well they are meeting their own goals, thus taking much of the burden off of a universitywide assessment team.
“It’s part of an improvement process,” McKeachnie said. “We’re all anxious to do better.”
The presentation also demonstrated the importance of assessment in the accreditation process. According to the presentation, USU’s last accreditation in 1997 by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges determined that USU’s assessment program was uneven, lacked coordination, and needed to focus more on outcomes. As well as benefiting students through surveys aimed at improving the quality of education at USU, the improved assessment programs are also designed to rectify these problems pointed out in 1997.
According to the presentation, the plans are going well but much work still must be done before the next accreditation visit in 2007.
In other trustees business, a vote on certain issues facing the university was conducted. Due to prior research done by the board members on each part of this “consent agenda,” very little debate was involved in the vote.
The trustees passed proposals made by the music and engineering departments as well as decided to purchase an apartment complex for sale at 474 N. 600 East.
The meeting also included a presentation by USU Campus Police Chief Steve Mecham.
“USU continues to be a very safe place to be,” Mecham said. “Very few violent crimes were committed on our campus.”
Mecham discussed the crime statistics for 2001 and 2002, showing that sexual assaults went up somewhat in 2002 but burglary went down almost 50 percent.
Utah State Fire Marshall Gary Weiss also took the floor to present two awards to USU President Kermit L. Hall and Steven Jensen, director of Housing and Food Services. The awards were presented for the retrofitting of fire alarms and sprinkler systems in 14 on-campus apartments and dormitories.
Expressing a hope that other universities would follow USU’s example, Weiss said, “Your actions will save lives and preserve property for many years.”
The next Board of Trustees meeting is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 21.
-sjeppesen@cc.usu.edu