SACS Reaffirmation
| Objective | Student Satisfaction | |
| The Department of Political Science will improve students' overall satisfaction with the MPA program Associated Goals: Academic Program Improvement |
| Indicator | Student Satisfaction Student satisfaction will be measured using an anonymous exit survey. All graduate students will complete the survey prior to graduation. |
| Criteria | Student Satisfaction At least 80% of our MPA graduates will provide a positive answer to question 6 on the graduate exit survey. Respondents answers will be considered positive if they describe their overall experience with the program met or exceeded their expectations. |
| Finding | student satisfaction Three MPA graduates responded to the survey. Of these, 100% responded that the program met or exceeded their expectations. While the results show the goal was met, three responses are not sufficient to adequately assess the program. |
| 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. |
| Objective | Evaluate Student Perceptions Of The MPA Program | |
| The MPA faculty will meet annually with the MPA students to access student needs and determine any problems with the program. Associated Goals: Continuously Evaluate Program To Meet Student Needs |
| Indicator | Students Express Satisfaction Or Dissatisfaction The faculty will evaulate the student's perceptions of the program through an annual focus group meeting. |
| Criteria | Respond to Student Opinions Although the focus group is conducted as an informal discussion of the program, eighty percent of the participants should express satisfaction with the program. |
| Finding | Student satisfaction There is no evaluation of the focus group other than notes taken by a Graduate Assistant. The oral consensus of the focus groups held in May 2006 and May 2007 showed a high level of satisfaction with the program. |
| Action | Student satisfaction of MPA program While the department conducts a focus group meeting once a year where MPA students and faculty discuss the program, there is no hard data collected. A satisfaction survey will be added to the focus group. Students will be asked to fill out a student satisfaction survey for the program. |
| Objective | Encourage Student Research | |
| All students enrolled in PA 583, a research based course, will submit abstracts to professional conferences or papers to professional journal. Associated Goals: Encourage Student Conference Attendance And Professional Writing |
| Indicator | Encourage students to present papers at conferences Students enrolled in PA 583 will submit papers to professional conferences. |
| Criteria | All students will submit abstracts to conferences or articles to journals PA 583 is the second required research class that students take and is where students prepare their Capstone Paper. One hundred percent of students will either submit an abstract to a professional conference or submit a paper to a journal. The number of students enrolled in PA 583 that submitted abstracts to professional conferences or articles to peer reviewed journals in 2005-6 will be compared to students enrolled in PO 583 in 2006-7. |
| Finding | Students will attend professional conferences The goal was not met; however, the requirement of submitting proposals or papers will not be implemented intil 2008-09. Zero students attended conferences or submitted abstracts or journal articles in 2005-6. Three of eight students presented at conferences in 2006-07. |
| Action | Require students to submit research Beginning in 2008-09, students enrolled in PA 583 will be required to submit either an abstract to a professional conference or a paper to a peer reviewed journal for satisfactory completion of the course. Students will not receive a grade in the course until the professor receives documentation of the submission. |
| Objective | Match Internships To Core Course Objectives | |
| The intership should give students an opportunity to utilize and practice their classroom learning in administrative settings. Associated Goals: Improve Internships |
| Indicator | Internship Experience Students are assigned to an internship in a governmental or non-profit agency. They work at least two semesters for 20-25 hours each week and enroll in POL 595. Course requirements include a major written assignment and "very good" to "excellent" performance ratings by the intern's workplace supervisor. Each supervise meets at least once with the supervising professor. He also evaluates the student's performances at the end of each semester using an "Intern Supervisor's" form. |
| Criteria | Supervisor''s evaluation The supervisor evaluates the intern on an instrument that has 10 questions evaluating the student. Some of these areas include the student''s relations with others, attitude, judgment, ability to learn, dependability, quality of work, work compared to others, and work compared to other employees. The ratings are a 5 step Likert scale with "very good" and "excellent" as the two highest categories. This assessment is 40 percent of the student''s grade. Students must receive 100 percent of the scores as "very good" or "excellent" to receive an "A" on the evaluation. |
| Finding | Intern ratings The goal was exceeded. One hundred percent of the interns received "very good" or "excellent" scores from their supervisors. |
| Action | Counseling for students not receiving good ratings The graduate advisor will counsel students who do not receive "very good" or "excellent" ratings from their intern supervisors. This will occur immediately after the supervisor''s evaluation is received during the first semester of the internship. |
| Action | Incorporate the use of portfolios in internships The focus groups identified the use of portfolios as a learning tool to be developed in POL 595, the internship course. Students must now develop a portfolio of their professional work to help with interviewing when they are looking for a job. |
| Objective | Increase Enrollment By 10 Percent Per Year | |
| In order for the MPA program to grow, enrollment must increase. Thus, the number of applications to the program, course enrollment, and the number of students should increase by 10 percent from 2005-06 to 2006-07. Associated Goals: Increase MPA Enrollment By 10 Percent |
| Indicator | Increase Enrollment Enrollment in courses, the number of students taking classes, and the number of applications are indicators of changes in enrollment from 2005-06 to 2006-07. |
| Criteria | Increase enrollment Changes in enrollment will be examined by three criteria comparing data from 2005-06 to 2006-07: First, by the number of students taking courses; second, by the number of applications to the program; third, by the number of students enrolled in MPA courses. There must be a 10 percent increase in any area for the goal to be met. |
| Finding | Increase enrollment The data show the goal was not met. When examining data from 2005-06 and comparing it to data from 2006-07 the following results are shown. First, the number of students taking courses remained stagnant at 15. Second, the number of applications decreased from 18 to 17, and third, the enrollment in courses declined from 47 to 38. |
| Action | Increase reruiting students The graduate advisor will engage in more recruiting activites in undergraduate classes and in the community to enhance enrollment. |
| Objective | Student competency in core areas | |
| Students must demonstrate competency in the some of the core areas of public administration including financial management, research methods, and ethics. Associated Goals: Students Must Demonstrate Competency Before Graduation |
| Indicator | Students Must Demonstrate Competency. Students must demonstrate competency by passing a written examination covering the core areas of research, financial management, and ethics. Currently faculty members who teach the testing fields write and grade the examination questions. Students are awarded the grades of high pass, pass and fail. All students must pass the written comprehensive examation to graduate. |
| Criteria | Pass rates for comprehensive examination One-hundred percent of students must pass the comprehensive examination. Twenty percent of students should achieve a high pass in at least one field. |
| Finding | Students demonstrate competency The goal was exceeded. One-hundred percent of students taking the comprehensive examination in 2006-2007 passed. Over twenty percent (33.33 percent) of the students received a grade of high pass in at least one area. |
| Action | Increase number of examination graders In order to promote consistency and fairness, each comprehensive question will have two graders. |