Special Visit Fall 2023

What will the Special Visit involve?

A Special Visit focuses on progress made by the institution in addressing issues identified by the Commission. The Special Visit is not a comprehensive evaluation of the institution. 

View Final Report (PDF)        View Team Report and Commission Action Letter 

The seven issues that the Fall 2023 Special Visit will focus on are:

Recommendation #1: Address issues of diversity and inclusion as a core value identified in the Strategic Plan with a sense of urgency. (CFR 1.4)

Recommendation #2: Develop and implement a sustainable approach to fill interim leadership positions with permanent staff and faculty. The campus community, including students, will benefit from a comprehensive communication strategy that establishes clarity of purpose and invites engagement with these new roles or departments. (CFR 3.1, 3.6)

Recommendation #3: Develop a structure to establish relationships among program learning outcomes, general education learning outcomes, and institutional learning outcomes. (CFR 2.2a, 2.3, 2.4, 4.1, 4.3)

Recommendation #4: Articulate how assessment from programs, general education, and student affairs provide evidence of meeting institutional learning outcomes. These assessment efforts and results should be combined with institutional data to explicitly understand the relationship between student learning and student success (CFRs 2.4, 2.5, 2.7, 2.13).

Recommendation #5: Adopt the improvements proposed to the University Senate by the Office of Assessment and Program Review (OAPR) to make program review more meaningful and manageable. OAPR should integrate overall assessment results as part of a program’s evaluation. (CFR 2.7, 4.1. 4.3)

Recommendation #6: Create a sustainable institutional plan and process for the development, assessment, support, and resourcing of graduate programs, building upon current graduate institutional learning outcomes and ensuring that graduate students have ready access to student services. (CFR 2.2b, 2.4, 2.13)

Recommendation #7: Complete the Campus Master Plan and Information Technology Plan, and, integrate these with the Academic Master Plan and Strategic Plan, including mechanisms for monitoring progress and achievement. The university should further enhance its budget and financial planning processes to ensure that these prioritized institutional goals are appropriately funded. (CFR 3.4, 4.7)

Initial drafts and summaries of essays are available upon request by emailing the Office of Academic Programs.