Self-Study (Narrative & Supporting Materials)

To prepare for the review committee's visit, the chair/director convenes the department/program members to prepare for and write a self-study that will be shared with the deans and the review committee.

Overview

The self-study serves two related purposes. First, it offers the department/program an opportunity for critical self-reflection and consideration of potential improvements. Second, it provides the review committee with the information they need for the review. To prepare to write the self-study, a department/program should assess its strengths and weaknesses, place within the broader college community, and vision for the future. Furthermore, the self-study document should reflect the department/program’s engagement with the college-wide emphasis on inclusive excellence[1] as it pertains to curriculum, pedagogy, students, faculty, and staff. The narrative portion of the self-study typically consists of about 20 pages of text.

Often, several meetings are needed to prepare the self-study. These can begin with a summer working group that considers the current state and future trajectory of the department/program. The self-study description below provides an outline for the self-study and suggests the sorts of data and questions the summer working group should consider. The goal of this preliminary work is to outline the self-study and to identify key questions for the review committee to consider. The working group may distribute tasks for gathering information and writing sections of the self-study among faculty members and set up a timeline for writing, reviewing, and finalizing the self-study. The chair should share a final draft of the document with the associate dean for curriculum for feedback no later than six weeks before the review committee’s visit. No later than four weeks before the campus visit, the department/program finalizes the self-study to include supporting materials and submits it to the associate dean. The Office of the Dean for Academic Affairs then distributes it to the review committee along with general institutional information, a campus map, and access to the ��ϳԹ��վ College Catalogue and Academic Handbook.

[1] As stated in the 11/30/2020 email from President Rose and Michael Reed, the current working definition of “inclusive excellence” for ��ϳԹ��վ College is that developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and now widely accepted in the academy:

Making excellence inclusive is thus an active process through which colleges and universities achieve excellence in learning, teaching, student development, institutional functioning, and engagement in local and global communities. A high-quality, practical liberal education should be the standard of excellence for all students. The action of making excellence inclusive requires that we uncover inequities in student success, identify effective educational practices, and build such practices organically for sustained institutional change. (From Williams et al., “Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence,” Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2005.)

Self-Study

The self-study consists of four sections: curriculum, pedagogy, student experience, and faculty experience. A final section, “looking ahead,” summarizes the self-study's key findings and what they suggest about the department/program’s future. As a first step, the chair gathers historic data found on the department/program’s academic data profile (including major/minor numbers, course enrollments and demographic breakdowns, past annual reports, and senior satisfaction surveys). The department/program should also consider learning goal assessments, comparative data on peer institutions, and recent proposals for faculty position (re)authorizations through the Allocation of Faculty Positions (AFP) process and related communications from CEP and the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs. Finally, it is important that the department/program consider itself in light of recent developments within the discipline and its teaching. The self-study should be written with the understanding that the review committee is its primary audience. The department/program can consult with Institutional Research, Analytics, and Consulting (IRA&C) about additional types of data that may be useful for conducting the review. Here is a link to the IRA&C data request form: /ir/request-data/index.html

Introduction

The introduction describes the department’s/program’s conceptual framework, including overarching curricular, pedagogical, and scholarly/artistic goals, with an emphasis on those goals as they pertain to inclusive excellence. It should then indicate the key questions to be addressed in the first four sections of the study: curriculum, pedagogy, student experience, and faculty experience.

Curriculum

This section addresses the key curricular questions highlighted in the introduction, with a particular emphasis on the department/program’s learning goals and lessons from their assessment, and efforts at creating an inclusive curriculum. Please also address, as appropriate, the rationale guiding the curriculum, implemented and anticipated curricular innovations (particularly those that relate to new or emerging aspects of the discipline), and curricular relations with other departments.

Pedagogy

This section addresses the key pedagogical questions highlighted in the introduction. In particular, discuss steps taken or planned to create more inclusive teaching practices. For guidance on this, please refer to the “a-f” guidelines for inclusive excellence in teaching in the 2023-24 Faculty Handbook, IV. a. 1 (p. 17). Please also address, as appropriate, current pedagogical approaches, anticipated pedagogical revisions, and mechanisms in place for providing student academic support (e.g., tutoring, study groups, etc.).

Student Experience

This section addresses the key student experience questions highlighted in the introduction. Please also consider, as appropriate, student demographic data, curricular changes and departmental activities and events designed to create a sense of community and belonging among students, as well as data gathered from students. IRA&C can partner with departments on querying, gathering, and summarizing data about the student experience. Here is a link to the IRAC data request form: /ir/request-data/index.html

Faculty Experience

This section addresses the key faculty experience questions highlighted in the introduction. Please also address, as appropriate, steps taken or planned for inclusive faculty governance, mentoring practices, the successes of and challenges faced by the various categories of instructors (tenure-line, lecturers, laboratory instructors, visitors, etc.), invisible labor and faculty workload equity, and departmental efforts to support professional development.

Looking Ahead

Please use this section to summarize the major findings of the department’s/program’s self-study and what they suggest about the future direction of the department/program. This is also a place to pose additional questions for the review committee to consider during their visit and in their report.

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