Information provided on assessment Dear University Council Member, I was supposed to read the following message at last week's meeting of the University Council. I forgot to do so. Please read through the text of the message presented below. -- Tom Petros, University Senate Chair. On behalf of the University Assessment Committee, thank you for all of the work you have done, and continue to do, relative to the assessment of student learning and development. Through reviews of the departmental assessment plans and annual reports, it is evident that significant progress has been made throughout campus relative to developing plans, identifying goals and objectives, gathering data, analyzing results, and closing the loop on findings. As an institution, we are getting better at asking questions, interpreting findings, and documenting our activities! Through this process, many departments have discovered useful information about students' learning and program curricula. Departments have made decisions to add or delete content, re-sequence offerings, and provide more 'real-world' applications of content, to name a few examples. The basic message is this: UND has been working hard on the assessment of student learning. We are proud of the progress which has been made thus far. We encourage you to continue your efforts in the upcoming years; UND must keep a high level of attention on student learning, which continues to be at the core of our institutional mission. Finally, this is a particularly key year given the upcoming focused visit from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) in April 2008; the team will look closely at the progress the University has made in assessment. The team will visit with faculty from across campus about the assessment activities in which they and their departments have been engaged. The committee encourages ongoing conversations with colleagues and students regarding the purposes, activities, and outcomes of their assessment activities. Once again, on behalf of the University Assessment Committee, thank you for your ongoing efforts and accomplishments! Renee Mabey, Chair, University Assessment Committee October 2007