Plan for Assessing Student Success
Executive Committees
The Discipline Coordination Plan
The following discipline coordination plan was introduced to the faculty at Fall Convocation 2000. The plan provides faculty with a clear delineation of their role and responsibilities as they relate to the oversight and the effectiveness of their respective academic disciplines. The plan also outlines the process for the review and assessment of academic programs and delineates the responsibility and charge to the faculty in overseeing their respective academic disciplines.
Each discipline/special program/course is assigned to a Coordinating Dean for oversight. The Coordinating Dean's responsibility is to aid in communication between the various constituencies, facilitate discipline coordination, monitor the activities of the discipline group and advise as appropriate. Campus Deans of Academic Services have a broad responsibility for oversight of academic disciplines on their respective campuses. In turn, their role as Coordinating Dean is an extension of these responsibilities from the campus to college-wide.
The Coordinating Dean will serve in an advisory and administrative capacity to work in a collaborative manner with faculty to shape and guide the academic vision. It is the goal that all faculty will share in this responsibility equally and that this coordination will facilitate a stronger collaborative structure between faculty and administration. Orientation meetings for faculty and administration will be scheduled to ensure that all involved understand this process.
This structure, through better communication, will facilitate more effective collaboration across the College, provide a venue for faculty to discuss the issues and reach consensus within their discipline and improve the continuity of the curriculum through more efficient implementation of changes across the College.
Commonalities
Oversight for curriculum is a college-wide responsibility. Every effort has been made to ensure that all faculty will have the opportunity for equal participation within their discipline structure. Each discipline will develop specific operating policies and processes for committee organization, responsibilities and charges for these committees and the method for selecting membership to the discipline committees. This will give the faculty the opportunity to develop a process that will address the needs of all of the campuses.
The College is organized into ten academic areas. Eight areas represent programs of study housed in their respective academic disciplines. The configuration of the ninth group reflects specialized programs/courses which are non-discipline specific. The final group has responsibility for general education outcomes and General Studies.
Georgia Perimeter College Discipline Groups: 2001/2002
The one common committee for all of the disciplines will be an Executive Committee. (see Discipline Charge for respective discipline committees) Membership will include Department Chairs or appropriate designees and faculty representation, as appropriate for that discipline. The Chair of the Executive Committee will be elected from the current committee membership by the members of the Executive Committee.
Faculty representatives to the Executive Committee will be elected at the beginning of each Spring term. Disciplines with campus based criteria for Executive Committee membership will rotate members as follows: Clarkston and Decatur/Rockdale will change membership during the odd fiscal years and Lawrenceville and Dunwoody/Alpharetta will change membership during the even fiscal years. Discipline committee structures with course based committee membership rather than campus based representation on the Executive Committee will determine the rotation of members that best serves the discipline as long as faculty members serve two-year terms with ½ the membership rotating each year. Terms will begin on the first day after the end of the Spring term.
During the inaugural "2000/2001" year of the plan, the Executive Committee will be elected during the Fall Convocation Meetings or as early in the Fall semester as possible. Clarkston and Decatur/Rockdale members will rotate off in Spring 2001 and Dunwoody/Alpharetta and Lawrenceville will rotate off in Spring 2002 for disciplines with Executive Committee membership that is campus based. Disciplines with Executive Committee membership that is course based will determine the rotation schedule, for the first year, which meets the needs of the discipline as long as half of the members rotate off in Spring 2001.
Alternative models may be implemented in consultation with the appropriate Coordinating Dean. (i.e. Dental Hygiene, Interpreter Training)
Minutes will be taken at all discipline committee meetings for distribution to the discipline faculty members and forwarded to the Coordinating Dean. These minutes will be used for communication purposes and as an archive for the discipline.
Executive Committee Charge:
Discipline Charge:
Through the Executive committees quality assurance through assessment is owned by the faculty of each discipline. Some Executive committees may are better at managing and experimenting with assessment than others. As is true for students, professors learn new things by doing them, and assessment is a new thing for most. Within the broad limits identified above, individual departments decide how to create the assessment instruments for their disciplines and match it to their own goals. Therefore, success can be incremental and uneven, but it is sure. GPC's assessment focus is on internal improvement and it draws its power from what dedicated professor's honor: Sharing their scholarship with dedicated apprentices. Yet the byproduct of sincere internal assessment is the proficiency not only to survive, but also to prosper from review. Through authentic assessment, Boyer's scholarships of discovery, integration, and application are transformed into the scholarship of teaching.
Modified: