SACS Reaffirmation
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Assessment : 2006 - 2007 : Administrative Support :
Political Science, Department of
3 Goals 6 Objectives 6 Indicators 6 Criteria 6 Findings 6 Actions
GOAL: Academic Program Improvement
| Objective | Faculty Teaching | |
| The Department will provide high quality teaching. Associated Goals: Academic Program Improvement |
| Indicator | Faculty Teaching Faculty will be evaluated using the data collected through the Individual Development and Educational Assessment program. |
| Criteria | Faculty Teaching 60% of the department''s courses will be scored at or above the national average as indentified by the Individual Development and Educational Assessment program. |
| Finding | Faculty Teaching For fall of 2006 76% of the courses taught in the department were scored at or above the national average. For spring 2007 70% of the courses taught in the department were scored at or above the national average |
Actions for Objective:
| Action | Faculty Teaching The department will continue providing quality teaching. |
GOAL: Academic Program Improvement
| Objective | High Quality Curriculum | |
| The department will maintain high quality curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Associated Goals: Academic Program Improvement |
| Indicator | High Quality Curriculum Curriculum will be reviewed annually by the deparment's Curriculum Committee. |
| Criteria | High Quality Curriculum Curriculum (hours required and courses offered) will be comparable to curriculum found at universities and colleges ranked by US News and World Report as the top 10% universities and colleges for the study of political science and government. |
| Finding | High Quality Curriculum The Curriculum Committee reviewed the department''s curriculum (hours required and courses offered) and concluded that it was comparable to curriculum found at universities and colleges ranked by US News and World Report as the top 10% universities and colleges for the study of political science and government |
Actions for Objective:
| Action | High Quality Curriculum The committee will continue its annual review of the department''s curriculum. |
GOAL: Academic Program Improvement
| Objective | Professional And Political Markets | |
| The department will enhance students' exposure to the professional and political/government markets. Associated Goals: Academic Program Improvement |
| Indicator | Professional And Political Markets The Department's ability to offer students the opportunity to participate in professional and political/government markets will be measured according to the number of internships offered each year. |
| Criteria | Professional and Political Markets The Department of Political Science will offer at least 10 - 15 internships per academic year. |
| Finding | Internships We had anticipated 10 - 15 internships. However, we secured over 40 internships at the local, state, and national level. This number reflects the pent-up demand in the department following a long period of time without a real undergraduate internship program. Although we were pleased with most of the internships we found that roughly half of the internships did not offer students consistent exposure to education and professionalism. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action | Internships Now that the backlog of potential interns has been utilized, we are settling into a more manageable and realistic number of twenty or so interns per year. Such a strategy allows us to place only high-quality students while also ensuring that their work-place experience is rewarding. |
GOAL: Academic Program Improvement
| Objective | Student Satisfaction | |
| The Department of Political Science will improve students' overall satisfaction with academic programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Associated Goals: Academic Program Improvement |
| Indicator | Student Satisfaction  Student satisfaction will be measured using an anonymous exit survey. All undergraduate and graduate students will complete the survey prior to graduation. |
| Criteria | Student Satisfaction At least 80% of our graduates will provide a positive answer to question 12 on the graduate exit survey and at least 80% of our undergraduates will provide a positive answer to question 9 on the undergraduate exit survey. Respondents'' answers will be considered positive if they describe their overall experience with the programs as satisfactory or very satisfactory. |
| Finding | Student Satisfaction Fall 2006: 1/16 undergraduates completed the survey. The student offered a positive response to question 9. 3/4 graduates completed the survey. All students offered a positive response to question 12. Spring 2007: 7/27 undergraduates completed the survey. All students offered a positive response to question 9. 1/3 graduates completed the survey. The student offered a positive response to question 12. Although the students'' responses were positive in most cases the response rates for the surveys were too low to allow for accurate assessment of student satisfaction. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action | Student Satisfaction The department''s website has been revised to include online versions of the graduate and undergraduate exit survey. We believe online surveys will increase the response rate as online surveys are more accessible to students than mail out surveys. Three weeks before graduation students will be sent an email message encouraging them to complete the surveys. |
GOAL: Research Track Faculty
| Objective | Research Track Faculty | |
| Research faculty will engage in scholarly activities. Associated Goals: Research Track Faculty |
| Indicator | Faculty Research Research faculty's progress will be measured by the number of publications. |
| Criteria | Faculty Research Over a rolling 3 year period research track faculty will produce an average of 1 peer reviewed article per year or 1 book during the 3 year period. |
| Finding | Research Faculty Progress The mean number of publications we had antitipated was 1.0. The actual mean number of publications was 1.5 |
Actions for Objective:
| Action | Faculty Research We will continue to encourage faculty research efforts. |
GOAL: Teaching Track Faculty
| Objective | Teaching Track Faculty | |
| Teaching track faculty will engage in service work designed to promote the department, college, and university. Associated Goals: Teaching Track Faculty |
| Indicator | Teaching Track Faculty Teaching track faculty's progress will be measured by the the number of service projects completed in a year. Service projects include: membership in college and university committees, participation in department recruitment programs, organizer of major campus event, etc |
| Criteria | Teaching Track Faculty We expect our teaching faculty to complete at least 2 service projects per faculty per year. |
| Finding | Teaching Track Faculty Two out of four of our teaching track faculty completed at least two service projects. Projects included Academic Challenge, student recruitment drives, special speaker presentations, and more. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action | Teaching Track Faculty The department chair will explore various means for increasing the number of service projects completed by teaching track faculty. |