From the Provost

September 17, 2007
Volume 1 Issue 3

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A Message From the Provost

Dear Colleague,

In order to assess our progress as a university, it is crucial to evaluate carefully where we are. This dynamic of taking stock and moving forward, built deeply into our strategic planning efforts, is reflected in the items that make up this newsletter. In the fall of 2009, our campus will be assessed for accreditation. Accreditation will not be for us simply an exercise in documenting our academic programs, but an extensive effort to identify the strengths we will exploit, the obstacles we will encounter, and the opportunities we will embrace in pursuing the goals of the Strategic Plan.

• A grant from the Lumina Foundation, pivotal to our capacity to build stronger relationships with community colleges across the state, will enable us to provide readier access to, and better support for, students who transfer to Illinois to complete their degrees.
• A renewed commitment to assessing student outcomes will provide a richer base for understanding and measuring our success in helping students develop the creativity to navigate successfully the complexities of the twenty-first century world.

Each of these projects will require considerable effort on the part of many dedicated people. It is important that we make the most of those efforts by insuring that each project is shaped by our core values and focused on our key goals.

Sincerely,
Linda Katehi

Accreditation Process

We are now beginning to prepare for the next accreditation review by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, scheduled for the 2009-2010 academic year. Our hope is that the campus community will see this as an opportunity to assess our effectiveness as an institution, identifying areas where we are successful, as well as areas in which efforts to improve performance are needed. The accreditation process also provides a valuable opportunity to review campus activities and identify areas and activities that are no longer critical to our success and effectiveness as an institution. In sum, the accreditation process enables us to better understand who and where we are, as an institution, and to envision who and where we wish to be. Earlier this year, I appointed a working team to start the Self-Study process. They have established four goals to guide this activity:

1. Secure re-accreditation.
2. Integrate newly developed strategic planning with the HLC Self-Study process.
3. Raise awareness of the importance of ongoing planning and assessment to the success of the institution.
4. Use the Self-Study process to identify the strengths of the University and opportunities for improvement.

For further information on our activities on accreditation, as well as updates on current efforts please visit the Provost's Web site for updates regarding the accreditation process.

Transfer Student Initiative

The University of Illinois, in partnership with the Lumina Foundation for Education, will initiate the Transfer Experience and Advising Mentor (TEAM) Project in Fall 2007. The goal of this project is to increase access and academic success for Illinois community college students seeking to transfer to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The TEAM project aligns with the University's goal of increasing the diversity and excellence of the undergraduate student body by significantly increasing transfer student enrollments over the next five years.

The TEAM project has four specific goals:

• Increase the number of students who transfer to Illinois from target community college districts within the state of Illinois.
• Increase the academic success of students who transfer to Illinois from target community college regions.
• Reduce institutional barriers for community college students who transfer to Illinois.
• Disseminate outcomes of the TEAM project to partners, peer institutions, and at the national level to promote adoption of the TEAM model by other institutions.

To achieve these goals, the TEAM project staff will work closely with academic and student affairs staff members in units around campus to expand outreach and recruitment efforts to community colleges, use a cadre of student leaders to provide transition support to transfer students, create an advising link to the University of Illinois to ensure preparation for prospective students, enable prospective transfer students to complete Illinois course work in the semester prior to enrollment, and reduce the financial and institutional barriers that are troublesome for many transfer students. Vice Provost Ruth Watkins is the principal investigator for the TEAM project; project staff will be located in the Office of Admissions and Records and will work closely with academic and student affairs units across the campus. In an effort to improve opportunities for talented students to transfer to Illinois from community colleges, the Council of Deans, during their July retreat, decided to reduce the required credit hours from 60 to 30.

Student Outcomes Assessment

Since 1995, all academic units have instituted plans to assess student outcomes in all undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Plans have included a wide variety of assessments including student portfolios, examinations, senior exit interviews, and employer/alumni/student surveys. In 2000, all units were asked to report any changes or improvements made as a result of their assessment findings. Many units reported significant changes based on what they learned from their assessments.

In conjunction with the strategic planning and accreditation processes, the Provost's office is asking that all academic units revisit their assessment plans and submit new or revised plans in Spring 2008 as well as information about their use of assessment results. A series of workshops will be offered to assist units in the development and implementation of their assessment plans. In addition, the Council of Deans will discuss the findings from the Senior Student Survey and implications for improving undergraduate education.

Feedback

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