assessment plans and streamlines the tracking and reporting processes. One of the main features that was more developed this past year was two-fold; the e-portfolio product through Blackboard’s Content Collection system and the use of evidence collection. The System remains to be extremely well received by students, faculty, and staff alike. The number of Faculty Assessment Coordinators trained in using the Outcomes System has been increased from 4 to 12 to assure each academic and service area of the University will be able to benefit from the assessment process. The 16-member University Outcomes and Assessment Committee was reconfigured this year, with representatives including the Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Deans of each School, Extended Learning, full-time faculty representatives, administrative and professional staff representatives from each major division of the University, and one student representative from the Student Government Association. The committee is responsible for the establishment of a comprehensive set of related policies and procedures for governing our assessment processes, and integrating it into the daily life of the University. The committee approved two major pieces of policy this year. First, they approved an institutional assessment policy and a timeline for implementation. Now those policies will be included in the University Handbooks and Policy Manuals. The committee worked hard this year to establish a cycle to be implemented in the 2013-14 year with the development of a rubric and process to provide feedback on programmatic (instructional and non-instructional) assessment to individual programs/ departments as well as maintain and look at assessment at the institutional level to see trends and larger issues that need more of a strategic response for improvement and change. Second, they also launched an improved systematic cycle of surveys for every constituency in the University community—newly enrolled students, current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The surveys measure such areas as student engagement and satisfaction and alumni preparedness and outcomes. The first two surveys—those for freshmen and for alumni five years out—were
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Our highly anticipated Scholarship Ball is an annual gala designed to support financial aid for students. This year, Sister Francesca Onley, CSFN, honored Beneficial Bank’s President and CEO, Gerard P. Cuddy, with the 2013 Corporate Leadership Award, which honors a business person who models the values of family, respect, responsibility, service, and integrity. The Ball raised more than $242,000 in April 2013.
administered in fall 2011. This year, the University conducted the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement. These parallel surveys will be used for us to look at student engagement both in the classroom and out-of-the-classroom from both student and faculty perceptions. The NSSE/FSSE will provide some key indicators for progress and growth of our strategic plan on the initiatives and objectives that deal with student learning and engagement. The University last conducted NSSE in spring of 2009 and so this year’s results will be compared longitudinally to the past administrations of the survey at Holy Family.