Assessment in the Division

Introduction

Each year, in order to provide evidence to the Southern Association of Colleges (SACS) that the Division of Student Affairs is meeting the requirements for full accreditation, all areas and departments in the Division of Student Affairs at SMU are responsible for developing and executing an assessment process to evaluate the effectiveness of programs, events and operations.

The Student Affairs Assessment Committee, chaired by Judith Banes, Executive Director of Recreational Sports, is made up of staff from across the division. The committee meets on a regular basis to review the progress of each area in the Division and to ensure that they are meeting the designated requirements. The members of the 2008-2009 committee are:

Judith Banes (Chair)	8-3368
Missy Bryant	8-4560
David Hayden	8-4454
Ali Scoufield Martin	8-2245
Sarah Morgan	8-4823
Stella Mulberry	8-4406
Richard Owens	8-4499
Emily Sandvall	8-4332

The requirements consist of a three-phase process that results in the submission of a "5-Column Summary Form" to the Assessment Committee twice each year, once in August during the pre-assessment phase, and then a final report in June of each academic year. Of course, the actual assessment and data-gathering phase is conducted between these two report submissions.

The purpose of these pages is to assist Student Affairs departments in the successful completion of all three phases each academic year. There are several other pages which contain useful information:

Why Assessment?—Learn the rationale behind why we have an annual assessment process.
Guidelines—Get information about what is required during the process and see the annual timeline for completion each year.
Forms & Info—Download the forms you need for the process, and also some additional documents.
Learning Outcomes—Information to assist you with writing your SACS learning outcomes and measuring them.