College Performance

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College Performance

Dashboard(s) – Program indicators/financial – The Program Indicators Dashboard is an assessment tool for evaluating programmatic health, broadly defined as size, stability, student success (placement, retention, persistence), and growth potential. In addition to the quantitative indicators, it will also be shaped by qualitative evaluative criteria developed as part of an annual self-study. A comprehensive set of both quantitative and qualitative indicators can provide a holistic view of a unit while providing the necessary context. The goal is to develop a web-based dashboard that would be regularly updated to better reflect the qualitative self-assessments of programs.  

Compelling Curriculum Initiative – CAL UGS created and is sustaining a culture of learning assessment across all our curricular and co-curricular programs. Ongoing progress on the Compelling Curriculum Initiative: 

  • AY20-21: all major and minor programs revised programmatic learning outcomes (PLOs), a step well beyond the minimum required by the University 
  • AY21-22: 1. programs will develop curriculum maps for their new PLOs; 2. programs will incorporate wellness dimensions as next level PLOs; 3. co-curricular programs, i.e., advising, the Excel Network, will devise LOs 
  • AY22-23: programs will identify 1-2 new PLOs to assess and collect student work from appropriate courses (via curricular maps) 
  • AY23-24: based on assessment data, programs will engage in faculty development and further assessment work; the cycle is in motion 

Graduate Sustainability – Over the last ten years, we have made significant changes to the administration and funding of graduate programs in CAL to ensure that we offer a student-centered and student success-oriented experience to our MA, MFA, and Ph.D. students in our 9-terminal degree and 11 masters and professional programs. Our programs perform well. We have been successful by managing program enrollments such that both the quality of the learning experience we offer, and the financial resources required to run our programs are sustainable. 

Each program operates with a sustainability plan that is based on a few simple, but powerful ideas. First, we admit the number of people we can successfully graduate and place each year. We ensure that with an evidence-based approach to setting enrollment targets based on a five-year rolling average of degree placement and placement. This helps each program to stay in sync with the market for student placement. We update program performance data each year and coordinate with each program to provide funding for their sustainable cohort size using recurring dollars. We have shared our program annual performance snapshot reports with other units and the graduate school and many of our metrics have now been adopted in the program-level reporting on the OPB graduate dashboard.  

Culture of Care -The College implemented the Culture of Care in AY 2018-19 based on the College values that center the human being in our work together. Our Contingency Planning document of 2020 recommitted us to making decisions that exhibit compassion and care for our students, staff, and faculty, particularly in times of uncertainty. While measuring care can seem elusive at times, there are a couple of key performance indicators that point to success over time.  

  • Faculty Attrition Data: From 2015 to 2020, the overall salary savings due to FAS who left for another job, or a profession change declined steadily by 50% from 18 in 2015 to 9 in 2020. 
  • Faculty Success: Due in part to the implementation of transparent non-tenure stream promotion policies and criteria as well as intentional work to create a sense of belonging for such faculty in their units, a greater number of NTT/AS faculty have gone through promotion review successfully.   
    • In 2013, 12 received Des B; 2 (2014); 9 (2015); 2 (2016); 3 (2017); 9 (2018); 6 (2019); 11 (2020); 5 (2021). The new process for promotion to Associate Professor-fixed term 3 promoted (2019); 3 (2020); 1 (2021). The College promoted its first senior academic specialist since 2011.  

Salary Equity Analysis – We are conducting a salary equity analysis for non-tenure stream faculty and academic specialists. 

Ongoing Approach to Achieve FY21 and FY22 Budget Reductions – The budget reductions have required a multi-faceted approach over multiple years, and we will need to continue to employ these strategies for a couple more years. Our approach is to continue bridge budget reductions by using non-recurring monies to give us time to implement the strategies identified by the Budget Reduction Task Force in FY21. These strategies include: 

  • Faculty retirements will not result in replacement TS lines – they will be used to address the budget reductions. 
  • The curriculum will be streamlined to reduce the number of classes and programs offered. 
  • Restructuring the staff has reduced our overall costs, we expect to continue to reduce costs with efficiency and different types of positions. 
  • OCCI funds will be used to offset budget deficits, which are typically used to fund faculty research/travel, Graduate Assistantships/research/stipends/travel, facility improvements and new initiatives.