Self-study Design

WG 1 Mission and Goals; Planning, Resource Allocation, and Institutional Renewal; and Institutional Resources
(Standards 1, 2, and 3)

Charge:
Standard 1: Mission and Goals
1. To what extent do AUR’s mission and goals reflect the direction in which the university will be going over the next five years and its legacy of achievement, as well as its core values? (compliance)
2. How does AUR’s mission identify the university’s place in higher education generally and among overseas American universities? (compliance)
3.How does AUR tie students’ needs to its mission and goals? (assessment)
4. How does AUR define its goals in relation to a multi-year strategic plan? (relevant institutional issue)

Standard 2: Planning, Resource Allocations and Institutional Renewal

1. What progress has been made in the area of strategic planning and how will AUR continue to improve in this area? What are the mechanisms for review? (improvement)

2. How does AUR assess whether planning, resource allocation and institutional renewal processes are in line with budget and enrollment projections and plans? (assessment/compliance)

3. What procedures are being implemented to strengthen financial planning and budgetary decisions? (compliance/improvement/relevant institutional issue)

4. How robust are AUR’s multi-year budget projections in relation to the space facilities/infrastructure life-cycle management plan? (relevant institutional issue)

5. How does AUR engage in thorough income multi-year modeling through risk analysis? (relevant institutional issue)
6. To what extent does AUR consider basing its strategic plans on more variable enrollment and resource projections? (relevant institutional issue)

Standard 3: Institutional Resources

1. How does AUR define its institutional resources? (relevant institutional issue)

2. What process has been put in place in order to maximize the efficient utilization of institutional resources in support and advancement of AUR’s mission and goals? (compliance)

3. How does AUR determine the creation of new resources to support future educational needs? (compliance)

4. How does AUR plan to enhance institutional resources such as space, library and IT facilities, in order to satisfy degree-seeking student needs? (improvement/relevant institutional issue)

5. What progress is being made towards creating a comprehensive facilities and infrastructure master plan? (compliance/improvement)

WG 2 Leadership and Governance; Administration; and Integrity
(Standards 4, 5 and 6)

Charge:

Standard 4: Leadership and Governance

1. How effectively does the University communicate its governance structures to the entire AUR community? How efficient are the governance structures? How are they utilized for decision-making? How is communication among constituencies facilitated? How are staff, faculty and student government processes integrated? (compliance)

2. What processes are in place for evaluation of the President and the Provost and for self-evaluation of the Board of Trustees? (compliance)

3. What possible options may be explored to continue to internationalize / diversify the Board of Trustees? (relevant institutional issue)

4. What might improve institutional governance? (improvement)

Standard 5: Administration

1. How does AUR ensure that administrative structures are facilitating learning and research/scholarship? (assessment)

2. How does AUR ensure that administrative structures support the institution’s organization and governance? (compliance)

3. What processes are in place for periodic assessment of administrative structures and services? How effective are these processes? (compliance/assessment)

4. How will AUR make progress in collecting data and disseminating information about the University both internally and externally? (assessment/improvement)

5. How might the administrative structures and services be improved? (improvement)

Standard 6: Integrity
1.How do AUR’s academic programs and campus activities foster respect and integrity among students, faculty, staff and administration from a range of background, ideas and cultures? (compliance)

2. How does the University ensure that the standards used in dealing with faculty matters such as hiring, retention, grievance, and so on are fair and impartial? (compliance)

3. How does AUR ensure integrity and consistency in its advertising, announcements and institutional materials? (compliance)

4. Are plagiarism and other violations of academic integrity issues at AUR? How can we address these integrity issues? (improvement)

5. How might the culture of integrity be improved? (improvement)

WG 3 Student Admissions and Retention; Student Support Services; and
Related Educational Activities
(Standards 8, 9 and 13)

Charge:
Standard 8: Student Admissions and Retention

1. How clearly defined and effective are AUR’s admissions criteria and processes? What steps should be taken to improve them? (compliance/improvement)

2. How effective is AUR’s use of scholarships and work study funds in attracting and retaining students? How should these be modified to improve their effectiveness? (relevant institutional issue)

3. How will AUR diversify and internationalize its degree-seeking student body? (relevant institutional issue)

4.How can AUR use the results of both external research and its own internal research to improve its retention rate (assessment/improvement)

Standard 9: Student Support Services

1. How effective are AUR’s academic support services with respect to advising, fundamental skills, mathematics, English, Italian language, other areas? What steps should be taken to improve them? (compliance/improvement)

2. How effective are student support services with respect to personal and career counseling and internships? How should these be modified to improve their effectiveness? (compliance/improvement/assessment)

3. How well articulated are the goals of non-academic student support services, co- and extra-curricular learning activities? How effective are they and how are they assessed. (compliance/assessment)

4. How can AUR maximize the use of its physical plant and other resources to support co and extra curricular activities? (relevant institutional issue)

Standard 13: Related Educational Activities

1. How effective are AUR’s academic support services with respect to identifying students who are not fully prepared for college level study? (compliance/assessment)

2. How effective is AUR in referring admitted under-prepared students to relevant courses and support services? (compliance/assessment)

3. How effective is AUR in providing suitable remedial or pre-collegiate level courses that do not carry academic degree credit to prepare students for college-level study. (compliance/assessment)


WG 4 Faculty; Educational Offerings; and General Education
(Standards 10, 11 and 12)

Charge:
Standard 10: Faculty

1. Is the academic governance structure effective in facilitating communication among faculty (both full-time and adjunct) and between all faculty and administration? How can it be improved? (improvement/relevant institutional issue)

2. How effective is AUR’s process of evaluating and improving teaching effectiveness? How can it be improved? (compliance/assessment/improvement)

3. How effective is AUR’s process of evaluating and supporting scholarly, creative and professional activities? (compliance/assessment/improvement )

Standard 11: Educational Offerings

1. How do programs and courses foster intellectual, and creative competencies in students? How is the collected data used to improve programs and courses? (compliance/assessment/improvement)

2. How responsive to student needs and interests are AUR’s curriculum and program offerings? How can the review processes serve to improve this? (relevant institutional issue/improvement)

3. To what extent do library and IT resources support course and program educational missions? What can be the strategies for greater effectiveness? (compliance/improvement)

4. How well-established is the differentiation between course levels at AUR? How well do current course offering reflect the increasing levels of difficulty to students expected in 100-, 200-, 300- and 400-level courses? How can courses be better aligned to this framework? (improvement/relevant institutional issue)

Standard 12: General Education

1. How effective is AUR’s management and assessment of its General Education? (assessment/relevant institutional issue)

2. How effective is AUR’s system of embedded skills in enabling students to acquire information literacy and oral presentation skills (compliance/assessment/relevant institutional issue)

3. How effective are General Education requirements in enabling students to achieve General Education program goals? (compliance/assessment)


WG 5 Institutional Assessment and Assessment of Student Learning
(Standard 7 and14)

Charge:
Standard 7: Institutional Effectiveness

1. How effectively does AUR incorporate results of assessment into its planning and resource allocation process? (compliance)

2. How can assessment results be disseminated better in order to inform timely decision making? (compliance)

3. How can we improve the flow of information in order to implement more effectively new initiatives? (relevant institutional issue)

4. In terms of resource allocation how efficient are the large scale surveys compared with our own in-house surveys in helping us to assess student learning and resource allocation? (relevant institutional issue)

5. How should we assess the effectiveness of Student Government? (assessment)

6. How well aligned to our mission statement is our allocation of space? (assessment)

7. Is there scope for improving online services and resources in order to mitigate the problems of limited space? (improvement)

8. Having established a culture of assessment how can we consolidate structures and create incentives to ensure continued renewal? (improvement)

Standard 14: Assessment of Student Learning
1. a) How consistent is grading of student work:
i. across courses within a department?
ii. across levels?
iii. across departments?

b) Are extra steps needed to improve consistent assessment? (compliance)

2. How effective is course sequencing? (relevant institutional issue)

3. a) How does AUR compare with peer institutions with respect to:
i. grading
ii. assessment of student learning
iii. performance of graduates

b) How can AUR benchmark itself with peer institutions in these areas? (assessment)

4. a) How effective is the contribution to student learning of co and extra curricular activities and of short discipline-based field trips?

b) How can this be assessed? (relevant institutional issue)