FYPR Phase II External Review Guide

External Reviewer Information Collection and Analysis Guide California State University, Chico Undergraduate Degrees Programs: Five-Year Program Review This Information Collection and Analysis Guide assists external reviewers in collecting, analyzing, and reporting relevant data throughout the external review process More specifically, the guide is designed to accomplish the following: To assure that the external reviewer examines a program’s performance with respect to each of the criteria of review; To provide the external reviewer with a convenient form of recording strengths, weakness and issues identified during the Self-Study Report review for further assessment and verification during the campus visit; and To provide a single place to record strengths, weaknesses and issues to be included in the External Review Report Mission and Educational Objectives CF R Pre-Visit Yes No Criterion for Review Post-Visit Yes No 1.1 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have a clear and published mission statement that is appropriate for higher education and consonant with the mission and strategic priorities of the university? X X 1.2 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to periodically review and revise the mission statement as appropriate? Does the review process involve appropriate stakeholders? X X 1.3 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have specified its goals and expected student learning outcomes for the program as a whole and to have established processes for assessing student-learning outcomes and for assuring that students are achieving core competencies for completion of the program? X X 1.4 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have developed indicators and evidence to ascertain the level of achievement of its mission and program goals? X X Self-Study Report Analysis lzp1666102428.doc Post-Visit Comments Page of 36 Include: a) clarification issues and (b) verification issues lzp1666102428.doc Page of 36 Standard 1: The program articulates its mission and its objectives as a guide to its future, planned evolution, infrastructure and use of resources The program has a clear and conscious sense of its essential values and character, its distinctive elements, its place in the campus community, and its relationship to society at large The program uses effectiveness and performance indicators beyond inputs and resources as the organizing basis for defining, evaluating, and reflecting on program quality and program effectiveness lzp1666102428.doc Page of 36 Assessment of Appropriateness of Evidence for Mission and Education Objectives In accordance with Criterion 1.1, the Department of Geography and Planning has formulated a mission statement and publicized it through its web page The mission statement touches on the discipline of geography through emphasizing the society and nature interaction and the concern for spatial scale that are at the core of the discipline It also implies the character of planning by emphazing a goal of preparing students to participate in the forces shaping our rapidly changing globe The existence of this mission statement is a subtantial improvement over the 1998 statement, which was so generic that it could apply to any department in any discipline in any university around the country So, Criterion 1.2 is clearly evidenced by simple comparison of the two statements The Department in 1998 was so divided against itself that it probably could not agree on the nature of geography and planning and came up with a bland and useless statement to comply with the requirement and avoid strife The Self-Study describes the collaborative process of discussion that led to the much more coherent 2005 statement, and it shows a process of review, discussion, and consensus among the faculty The Self-Study reports that the statement wasn't floated to students or other stakeholders but that the Department hopes to consult with them I don't think it's particularly necessary to so, as few people in the public know what academic disciplines are and care less and might find it strange or irritating to look at a statement and be asked “is this what you think geography and planning are?” It is quite enough, at least for now, that the Department has evolved into an entity that can coöperatively agree on a common mission and self-identity In the process of goal and objective development requested in Criterion 1.3, this mission generates two central educational goals: provision of liberal education and professional preparation for geography and planning careers In its Self-Study and in interviews with me, the Department has discussed its unique character among the other departments on campus and how its essential values contribute to the campus mission and regional character, complementing the contributions of the other departments It has distilled its distinctive rôle in liberal education and professional preparation as: Provision of cartographic and geographic information systems technologies and instruction Emphasis on scale in instruction and research, so that all students will gain an understanding of how social and physical phenomena appear and function at local, regional, national and global levels Specific reference to the interaction of human society with the physical world I find these an unusually coherent conceptualization of the geography discipline and planning profession Such coherence leads to an easier formulation of assessment measures that go well beyond a simple managerialist approach in performance evaluation Criterion 1.4 gets at evidence for the achievement of mission and program goals The Self-Study does not go into overall program performance at this point: Rather, it focusses on student achievement, on which it has collected information supporting its commitment to its mission, goals, and objectives – and students This goes well beyond the basic evidence its course mix and faculty expertise provide It keeps a collection of student senior thesis papers, engages in the nomination of students for various scholarships and awards requiring analysis of student achievement, closely monitors students in the internship program through contact with supervising employers, tries to stay in touch with alumni to learn about where their careers or further graduate studies take them (including a survey distributed in 2002-03), and strongly encourages student research and dissemination through colloquia, conferences, and publications Having once been a member of that Department and witnessed the internecine strife of lzp1666102428.doc Page of 36 Issues Requiring Attention The mission statement is a bit awkward and verbose It could be tightened up (medium priority item) with rewording something along the lines of: The Department of Geography and Planning is committed to preparing students to engage our rapidly changing world through exploration of the social, environmental, and technical forces shaping our planet's future Our graduates will gain geographic insight into the relationships among human societies and the physical world at different scales through the effective teaching, advising, and research mentoring they receive in our Department The statement of mission and goals, while present on the web site, is not directly linked from the home page A link to it should be provided on the navigation bar on the home page's left side, in the “Our Department” list Either that, or the mission statement could be simply worked into the “About Us” page This is a medium priority item These quibbles aside, the mission statement provided in the Self-Study is immeasurably clearer and more focussed than the mission statement from the 1998 Self-Study The Department has obviously fine-tuned the process of thinking and talking about what it is faculty and staff and getting to a consensus that is both coherent and inclusive of the interests and expertise of all the current faculty lzp1666102428.doc Page of 36 CFR Teaching and Learning Pre-Visit Yes No Criterion for Review 2.1 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to develop expectations for learning and student attainment and widely sharing them among its members, including faculty, students, staff, and – where appropriate – external stakeholders.? 2.2 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: The program’s curriculum and extra-curricular activities are appropriate in content, standards, and nomenclature to the mission of the program? 2.3 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to maintain a full-time faculty sufficient to provide stability and integrity of the curriculum and on-going quality improvement for program offerings? 2.4 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to deploy faculty resources to reflect the mission and program goals? Students in the program and/or its subunits have the opportunity to receive instruction from appropriately qualified faculty? Post-Visit Yes No X X X X X X X X 2.5 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have the faculty, individually and collectively, maintain the intellectual qualifications and current expertise to accomplish the core functions of teaching and learning? X X 2.6 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to actively involve students in learning, challenging them to achieve high expectations, and provide them with appropriate feedback about their performance and how it can be improved? X X Self-Study Report Analysis lzp1666102428.doc Post-Visit Comments Page of 36 Include: a) clarification issues and (b) verification issues lzp1666102428.doc Page of 36 Standard 2: The program achieves its mission and attains its educational objectives through the core functions of teaching and learning and demonstrates that these functions are performed effectively lzp1666102428.doc Page of 36 Assessment of Appropriateness of Evidence for Teaching and Learning Rather than go criterion by criterion, I'll discuss the Second Standard more wholistically The Geography and Planning Department's mission and goals are elaborated into objectives and approaches that foster evidence collection in the course catalogue, web page, and faculty list Technological capabilities Global/local awareness Environmental awareness Experiential learning and service to community and region Proficiency in written and spoken communication Exposure to rigorous research methods The first addresses mastery of applied skills that make graduates sought-after employees This technological capability objective is evidenced by the 13 courses in the geospatial techniques and planning methods and the 26 station instructional lab in Butte 501, with its GIS, graphical, remote sensing, and statistical software Several faculty, notably Drs Melcon, Fairbanks, Hankins, Rovai, King, and Chase, as well as lecturer faculty, Mr Stewart and Ms Figge, and lab manager, Ms Benjamin, have expertise in GIS, cartography, statistics, remote sensing, and/or planning methods The second objective addresses global and local awareness The Department conveys a sense of how processes vary in expression at different scales from global to local and how the different scales interact This goal is evidenced in the 12 regional geography courses, courses with a globalization context or focus, courses with a local focus analyzed in a globalization context, and an explicitly cross-scale course (GEOP 426) Everyone in the Department has expertise supporting the global/local and interscale interaction projects, and Dr Rovai is an expert in the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem The third objective is the development of environmental awareness in students The Department supports this goal through the presence of physical geographers on staff (Drs Fairbanks, Hankins, King, and Melcon), as well as other faculty with environmental interests, doing work at the intersection of human society and the natural environment (Drs Rovai and Stemen) The Department offers physical science geography courses and courses about the interaction between society and nature The fourth objective promotes experiential learning and service to community and region This is strongly evidenced in the field courses and field trips, for which the Department is well known, as well as the internship program and the activist-oriented Environmental Studies program and the Butte Nature Preserve managed by Dr Stemen The fifth objective is proficiency in written and spoken communication, evidenced by its GEOP 309 and 290 sequence of research and writing courses, culminating in a formal senior thesis, which is publically presented to the Department It also encourages (and funds) student presentations at conferences The sixth goal is exposure to rigorous research methods, which is evidenced by the core requirement of geospatial techniques courses, the availability of 13 geospatial techniques courses, the existence of a GIS certificate, and the embedding of the geospatial techniques in both GEOP B.A Options The Self-Study organizes these objectives into a matrix (Table 1.3.1), showing where in the required curriculum a particular objective is fostered The result is easy to interpret and monitor, keeping the Department on track in meeting its goals and satisfying its mission while tracking the disciplines and social need and modifying its curriculum In a similar vein, the Department has developed a matrix of the alignment of student outcomes to course syllabi (Table 2.1.1) In short, GEOP is clearly building a culture of evidence in its ongoing self-assessment It might want to go through this matrix exercise every time it adjusts its curriculum lzp1666102428.doc Page 10 of 36 Learning and Enabling Resources PreVisit Ye No s CFR Criterion for Review 5.1 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to employ personnel sufficient in number and professional qualifications to maintain its operations and to support its mission and educational objectives? 5.2 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to align faculty and staff recruitment, workload, incentives and evaluation practices with institutional and program missions and educational objectives? 5.3 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to maintain appropriate and sufficiently supported faculty and staff development activities designed to improve teaching and learning consistent with educational objectives and program mission? 5.4 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have adequate processes in place to manage and support faculty over the progression of their careers? 5.5 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to effectively align fiscal resources with the mission and objectives, are appropriately diversified, and are sufficiently developed to support and maintain the level and kind of program offerings both now and in the foreseeable future? Self-Study Report Analysis lzp1666102428.doc Post-Visit Ye No s X X X X X X X X X X (due to campu s policie s) Post-Visit Comments Page 22 of 36 Include : a) clarification issues and (b) verification issues lzp1666102428.doc Page 23 of 36 Standard 5: The program sustains its operations and supports the achievement of its educational objectives through its investment in human, physical, fiscal and information resources These key resources create and maintain a high quality environment for learning lzp1666102428.doc Page 24 of 36 Assessment of Appropriateness of Evidence for Learning and Enabling Resources Criterion 5.1 asks whether personnel are sufficient in numbers and qualifications to maintain the Department's operations and educational objectives The answer is no The Department has eroded to full-time faculty (and last-year FERPs) from the 13 full-time faculty who were there in the early 1990s Five people retired and remain as last-year FERPs, other faculty have moved to other units on campus (Anthropology and administration), and left for another country without replacement Of these lost lines, only have been replaced The biggest hit has been to the planning area, with the retirement of Dr Holtgrieve and the emigration to Anthropology of Dr Collins, leaving an international migration and urbanization specialist (Dr Chase) and a part-time lecturer and practicing planner in the local area to hold down the fort (Ms Figge) This has forced the closure of the Rural and Small Town master's program and the option within the Geography B.A The Department has dealt with this by merging the RTPL degree into the Geography master's and the human geography advising pattern in the Geography bachelor's This shows an admirable willingness on the part of the GEOP faculty to “live within their means” and scale back the planning program to fit within the resources available, but the campus has diminished a unique program The Department has maintained and deepened strength in the physical geography/environmental geography area, with four physical geographers and two environmental faculty Human geography, however, is thin now, pared down to two faculty Human geography is now mostly merged with what's left of planning Human geography is numerically dominant in the larger geography profession, is very active in the geography literature, and was once a key strength of this Department The Department enjoys the services of a highly competent lab manager (Ms Benjamin) and adminstrative support coördinator (Ms Norton) and her student assistant Criterion 5.2 inquires about how well personnel recruitment aligns the Department with the University's missions In light of what's just been said, the Department has tried very hard to align its dwindling personnel resources with the campus will to attrition and has come up with a very sensible curricular streamlining that uses available resources very well and could actually serve as a great framework for new hiring It has hired several impressive new faculty and has supported them in developing their research agendas with assigned time incentives and formative evaluations Criterion 5.3 considers the amount of faculty development that helps GEOP support its educational goals and mission The faculty are productive, several publishing and all presenting research The Department goes beyond individual research agendas to support faculty development: I was impressed that it invested released time to build faculty proficiency in the geospatial techniques that have opened so many doors for geographers and planners and that it supported sabbaticals which come out of the Department's “hide.” Critierion 5.4 gets at the issue of long term faculty development The Department has hired a few impressively active new faculty, has augmented mentorship by providing a 3:3 load for them until they earn tenure, worked on allocating teaching among faculty to enable preps among the classes as much as possible, and successfully supported a couple of sabbatical leaves for tenured faculty CSUC doesn't recompense departments with part-time allocation to cover sabbaticals, which is not the practice at Long Beach and which makes GEOP's support for tenured faculty sabbaticals almost a touching expression of commitment to continuing faculty development As a former member of the Department, I can attest that the Department has shown great improvement in this regard Criterion 5.5 asks whether the Department aligns and diversifies its fiscal resources with lzp1666102428.doc Page 25 of 36 Issues Requiring Attention The shrinkage in the number of GEOP tenure-track positions has drastically injured the planning programs of the Department It should be noted that the enfeeblement of planning marks the diminishment of a departmental feature that made Chico State truly unique and valuable in the State of California There are fewer than half a dozen other planning programs in the entire State of California: All of them are in Southern California, and none of them deal with the planning needs of communities, small towns, rural areas, and Northern California environments The campus, by not funding GEOP to replace at least some of the missing lines, has chosen to let go of a unique and meritorious program, which met a large and ongoing social need in the service region and, indeed, the entire non-megalopolitan portion of California Staffed adequately and promoted properly, GEOP could attract planners in training from the Imperial Valley to the Modoc Plateau and North Coast GEOP has done a well thought-through streamlining of its curriculum to keep planning embedded in the major while yet living within the resources of a core faculty cut down by nearly 40% since 1990 I've just noticed that Sacramento State is advertising for a planner: Perhaps that campus is moving to exploit Chico's neglect of this important niche? I think the campus decision not to compensate departments for sabbaticals is counterproductive to sustained faculty development, and it seemed bizarre to me to be asked to comment on how the Department is managing its resources to support its offerings and its faculty's development when the campus puts such a towering obstacle in its way Similarly, it is difficult for me to comment on how the Department manages its resources to maintain its program when faculty can petition to move to another department and only the recipient department is allowed any say in the decision and the emigration is not paid for by a replacement line from the recipient to the donor department Yet again, the Department is told to deal with the extraction of fourth and fifth year FERP salaries It's a little hard to run your program rationally when the budgetary rug keeps getting pulled out from under you in a manner not common on other CSU campuses Campuses reserve the right not to restore retirement lines one for one to every department losing someone given the evolution of new programs and societal needs, but an attrition of 40% seems excessive in light of GEOP's unique and meritorious programs, such as planning, environment, and GIScience, and its substantial progress in dealing with the personality problems affecting it in the past lzp1666102428.doc Page 26 of 36 Learning and Enabling Resources Pre-Visit Yes No CFR Criterion for Review 5.6 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to hold, or provide access to, information resources sufficient in scope, quality, currency, and kind to support its academic offerings and the scholarship of its members? 5.7 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to sufficiently coordinate and support its academic technology resources to fulfill its educational purposes and provide key academic and administrative functions 5.8 5.9 5.10 PostVisitNo Yes X X X X Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to sufficiently coordinate and support its student support services to fulfill its mission and educational purposes? X X Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have sufficient space and facilities to support its academic offerings? X X Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have organizational structure and decision-making processes that are consistent with its mission and purposes and that provide for effective academic leadership to ensure academic quality and sustainability of mission and character Self-Study Report Analysis lzp1666102428.doc X X Post-Visit Comments Page 27 of 36 Include : a) clarification issues and (b) verification issues lzp1666102428.doc Page 28 of 36 Standard 5: The program sustains its operations and supports the achievement of its educational objectives through its investment in human, physical, fiscal and information resources These key resources create and maintain a high quality environment for learning lzp1666102428.doc Page 29 of 36 Assessment of Appropriateness of Evidence for Learning and Enabling Resources Criterion 5.6 deals with the information resources the Department has or has access to for the support of its academic offerings and the research of its faculty The Department has an excellent student instructional computer lab, which is well equipped with geographyrelated software (GIS, remote sensing, and graphical software) and peripherals and is wellrun by the part-time lab manager, Ms Benjamin The 26 workstations provide about computer for students, so there are student complaints about access to the computers, but the Chair tries to accommodate their needs by such strategies as extra hours funded by Work-Study The Department prioritizes refreshing faculty computers on a regular cycle The campus has made courseware (WebCT) available, and some faculty have experimented with using it for online courses Geography and Planning students need access to maps, as well as software and computers, and the campus has a good collection in the Meriam Library Classroom maps, however, are inadequately protected by the limited storage facilities available in Butte Hall, and some of those mounted in the classrooms, while in good condition, are out of date Critierion 5.7 addresses the coördination of these resources Geography is a very technologically demanding discipline and increasingly depends on unique software, such as GIS, remote sensing software, graphical software for cartography, and statistical software It requires uncommon equipment, such as plotters, digitizers, and scanners Coördination depends on a faculty interested in maintaining their own currency in GIScience and on appropriate technical support staff The Department strongly supports its faculty's professional familiarization with GIScience (e.g., assigned time to learn the software) and the half-time lab manager is a quantum improvement over the predecessors I remember Her work is vital to faculty research as well as student learning, and she struck me as an independently creative person who identifies needs and proactively works to meet them Her programming of the computerized kiosk on watershed issues is an example of this creativity Ms Benjamin could easily find enough to keep her busy as a ¾ or full time staff person, and I encourage the extension of her hours Critierion 5.8 focusses on student support services in the Department GEOP has evidenced its commitment to student support through instituting mandatory beginning-of-semester meetings where students meet with all faculty, receive information about lab updates, and advising information The Department has substantially upgraded its web pages, with an eye to providing information specifically oriented to students' needs All faculty advising and there's an active student club (the Geography and Planning Collective) and an honor society (Gamma Theta Upsilon), which the faculty advise actively Criterion 5.9 asks whether the Department's space and facilities are adequate This seems to be a bright spot Each faculty member has an office and telephone, and part-time faculty are far better housed than they are in my department The Department has a smart room on the fifth floor and uses two others on the first floor The instructional computer lab is very well equipped and managed, though there are some bottlenecks between student demand and time and computers available The 518 work area is occupied by the EARC and has become something of a student hangout, too I understand the map storage room in 107 is no longer available, so map storage has become a bit of a problem In general, the Department is decently and adequately housed for the foreseeable future Expansion of faculty lines should come with office space on the fifth floor to enable communication among all faculty Critierion 5.10 explores the Department's organizational structure and decision-making processes Having experienced it in its highly factionalized condition in the 1990s, I can state that I see a huge improvement in how the department functions and addresses decision-making Arithmetic reduction of faculty through retirement and emigration has reduced the number of disagreeing pairs of faculty exponentially The Department has given thought to structural realignment to avoid the re-emergence of bases of factionalization, merging human geography and planning into one advising stream and physical geography and environmental studies into another and creating a solid geospatial techniques stream and embedding it into the other two streams as well The faculty have been working on a culture of consensus, which has carried them through curricular realignment and may help them lzp1666102428.doc Page 30 of 36 Issues Requiring Attention The instructional lab requires more than 20 hours of a lab manager's attention Increasing her hours to at least 30 would help ameliorate some of the issues of too few computers and too many students I was surprised that only $1,000 of startup is offered to new faculty on this campus New faculty in my department at CSULB have negotiated startups ranging from $6,000 to $65,000, with $12,000-$20,000 being most typical Our deans make these packages available from a variety of sources, including grant indirect and Lottery, and the startups are spent over a 2-3 year timeframe, depending on the source The Department is expected to fund such items as printers and scanners and other minor startup items In Chico, the departments have to use OE to augment the $1,000 startup to hold onto their top recruitment choices, and candidates for jobs on all campuses seem to expect more startup resources these days than did faculty a generation ago: GAs for research and teaching assistance, field and lab equipment, costly specialized software, high end computers, and a reduced teaching load With regard to 5.10, I was pleasantly surprised at the obvious reduction in the tensions and factionalization that characterized the Department in the decade I was there, the legacy of some long-forgotten struggle dating back to the 1950s The Department has created a more consensual decision-making style and collegial atmosphere I did become aware of some tensions lying just under the surface, however First, there are tensions building around the rôle of Environmental Studies in the Department There is a feeling that Environmental Studies has become too much the bailiwick of the single individual who brought it into the Department The program expresses one of the four core traditional concerns of geography (human-environment interactions), and conservation planning and resource planning for sustainability constitute a major emerging emphasis in the planning discipline Environmental Studies requires the expertise of everyone in the Department, including physical geographers, GIScientists, and planners and cannot thrive as a one horse show Second, there is tension between Environmental Studies and the planning program, with the students of Environmental Studies said to call planners “land rapists,” which overlooks the fact that approximately out of GEOP graduates are destined to develop careers in planning offices and government agencies I think that fostering a more respectful dialogue between Environmental Studies and Planning would result in the graduation of science-grounded, planning-prepared, ethically-sensitized students, who could earn a living fostering environmental and community sustainability in planning offices, State agencies, or environmental advocacy or environmental journalism These tensions over the relationship between Environmental Studies and Geography and between Environmental Studies and Planning can potentially disrupt the very real progress I saw in creating a civil and professional atmosphere The Chair deals with conflicts over resources by brokering compromises bilaterally rather than allow the kind of heated fighting in faculty meetings that characterized the 1990s, and the result has been a more consensual and happier faculty Nearly all faculty expressed admiration for how she has thereby blunted the spirit of divisiveness in the faculty and let them find and focus on common points for collaboration She is stepping down at the end of S/06, however, and I would caution her replacement to pay close attention to these two subterranean issues, in order to preserve the newfound ability to coöperate In situations where coöperation is not possible because of the conflict over resources, the Chair has to be able to allocate them after due consultation but without yielding to pressure from narrow interests, in order to promote the collective good of the whole Department The Department has chosen to lzp1666102428.doc Page 31 of 36 Commitment to Learning and Continuous Improvement Pre-Visit Yes No CFR Criterion for Review Post-Visit Yes No 6.1 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to periodically engage its multiple constituencies in reflection and planning processes that assess its strategic position; articulate its priorities; examine the alignment of its purposes, core functions, and resources; and define the future direction of its efforts? X X 6.2 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to monitor the effectiveness of the implementation of its plans and revise them as appropriate? X X 6.3 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to employ a deliberate set of quality assurance processes? X X 6.4 Does the program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to have planning processes that align personnel, fiscal, physical, and technological resources with the mission, objectives and priorities of the program? X X Self-Study Report Analysis lzp1666102428.doc Post-Visit Comments Page 32 of 36 Include: a) clarification issues and (b) verification issues lzp1666102428.doc Page 33 of 36 Standard 6: The program conducts sustained, evidence-based and participatory discussions about how effectively it is accomplishing its missions and achieving its educational objectives These activities inform both program planning and systematic evaluations of educational effectiveness The results of program inquiry, research, and data collection are used to set program priorities and revise program purposes, structures, and approaches to teaching, learning and scholarly/creative work lzp1666102428.doc Page 34 of 36 Assessment of appropriateness of Evidence for Commitment to Learning and Continuous Improvement Criterion 6.1 deals with how the Department engages with its multiple constituencies to evaluate itself and plan improvements and future directions GEOP has the following natural constituencies The faculty itself is one, the administration another, and the students are ultimately the most important Beyond that, there are professional constituencies in the disciplines of geography and planning and closely allied disciplines (environmental studies, environmental science, other geosciences, anthropology, political science, and so on) More widely still, there is the ultimate constituency of society itself, especially in the many communities of the service area and rural regions of the State, and the many alumni contributing to it The Department has demonstrated that it has improved the collaborative ability of the faculty itself to identify and respond to student needs and administrative imperatives through civil discussion and planning Many faculty remain in touch with alumni, which helps keep the Department aware of how its students are faring in the post-graduation world The Department is unusually well connected with the communities surrounding it, as seen in Dr Stemen's many involvements through his management of the Butte Creek Nature Preserve, Dr Chase's many ties with local planning agencies (and the presence on the faculty of a prominent local planner, Ms Figge), Dr Rovai's class' GIS analysis of political redistricting, and Dr Hankin's ties to Native California communities and Federal agencies Criterion 6.2 inquires about how the Department monitors the implementation of its plans The Department has shown persistence in working on goals and plans emerging out of at least the last two reviews It checks past reviews in the process of later self-studies and it has been very successful in pruning the baroque tangle of degree options and advising patterns to three clearly defined and rationally structured curricular patterns It has successfully consolidated its space holdings to the betterment of internal communications and has been partially successful in increasing the field component of its course offerings, within budget constraints It has only created one new course since the last review but a lot of curricular updating has, instead and equivalently, been achieved through course modification A disappointment has been the inability of the Department to implement an AICP-certified planning program, which would have entailed the hiring of at least one other AICP-certified planner (and replacement of the two who retired/emigrated) This reflects campus-level allocation of resources, however It is unfortunate, given that this was the only planning program in the State to address the planning needs of communities, small towns, and rural environments The Department has responded admirably.by fusing planning with human geography The campus should be aware, however, that failure to augment GEOP lines threatens its own ability to meet a unique and important Statewide social need Criterion 6.3 requests information on quality assurance processes The Department responded with a description of its personnel review processes, its ongoing concern for upgrading student outcomes assessment past the ordinary assessment that goes on in grading, its exploration of its Capstone class senior thesis as a kind of integrative portfolio of student learning, and examination of all syllabi by the Chair Critierion 6.4 asks about the alignment of Departmental planning processes with Departmental mission The Department's response indicates that the mission, objectives, and priorities are transmitted to new members through institutional culture and the compulsory examination of past reviews in order to carry out the present review The Department has built a much more collegial character than was the case in the 1990s: This is now a functioning, communicating, learning organization capable of talking through tough decisions about resource allocation in order to align them with the Department's sense of itself and its larger mission lzp1666102428.doc Page 35 of 36 Issues Requiring Attention I think the Department does a very good job staying in touch with its many constituencies and tries to respond to them in a forward-looking way One thing that might make is a little easier is the constitution of a formal advisory committee (alumni, government agencies, one or two faculty from allied disciplines, a representative of administration, current advanced students?) to be tasked with proposing an array of potential solutions to focussed concerns This might be helpful in increasing alumni and business donations to the program, too, and it could be asked to help out in recruitment activities (e.g., funding them, serving as guest speakers in Department events) This is not a high priority item, just something to consider and implement if discussion warrants it lzp1666102428.doc Page 36 of 36 ... program satisfy the expectation of this criterion: to periodically review and revise the mission statement as appropriate? Does the review process involve appropriate stakeholders? X X 1.3 Does the... data-gathering for program review much easier, it would certainly have helped me to learn more about what the faculty are doing, it helps promote the Department to potential new hires and external audiences,... shown persistence in working on goals and plans emerging out of at least the last two reviews It checks past reviews in the process of later self-studies and it has been very successful in pruning