Updates

Standard I: Mission & Goals
We expect to meet this standard. The College has been particularly strong in developing, implementing, and monitoring a series of strategic plans with specific targets for goals that align with mission. The College’s mission is clearly defined and relevant to all campus constituencies; a possible area of improvement would be to integrate the mission more explicitly into the process of welcoming new members of the community to campus (faculty, students, and staff).

Standard II: Ethics & Integrity
We expect to meet this standard. The College is strong on issues of academic freedom for faculty and students, and fairness and transparency in advertising. There are many ways that we do a good job fostering an atmosphere of respect on campus, but we can improve by reaffirming our commitment to and reliance on the St. Mary’s Way as a guiding principle. We have formal grievance policies in place, but there are some shortcomings to address, and student concerns do not always secure uptake. This last point is an issue that many colleges and universities are facing - it is not unique to SMCM - but it is an area for growth and improvement for us.

Standard III: Design & Delivery of the Student Experience
We expect to meet this standard. The College is particularly strong in the following areas: (1) the LEAD curriculum is robust and it meets the goals that we have laid out; and (2) there are useful materials around curriculum requirements that OS3 disseminates to guide students in their courses of study. The main gaps identified concern the College web site; we have found that the web site does not always have accurate and timely information for students regarding the curriculum. This is an area of growth for us, and we are heartened that some efforts are already underway, such as the development of a centralized advising web site for students.

Standard IV: Support of the Student Experience
We expect to meet this standard. Many of the criteria are extremely specific and we have been successful in locating the relevant SMCM information and evidence. We have not identified any major gaps, although we have found that the College web site could be improved to make information more readily available to students.

Standard V: Educational Effectiveness
We expect to meet this standard. Assessment of student learning has made great strides since the 2015 self-study and the subsequent warning. There is ample evidence of comprehensive, organized, systematic assessment of student learning at multiple levels, and of the dissemination and consideration of assessment results to improve the curriculum and enhance the student experience. We collect annual reports from programs which detail planned changes based on assessment findings; a possible gap area involves the need to follow-up with programs to see how such plans are implemented. We would also like to explore the extent to which students should be directly involved in the assessment process, as appropriate.

Standard VI:  Planning, Resources, and Institutional Improvement
This standard is a challenge because of the heavy emphasis on the explicit and documented use of assessment to inform budgeting, decision making, and planning across the institution. The recently implemented campus-wide administrative assessment system, whereby every campus office has set goals and outcomes, is a big step toward satisfying Criteria 1 and 2 of this standard. Plans to gather assessment data in January and June of this year, and to develop an Administrative Assessment Handbook, will also be extremely helpful and important in our ability to meet this standard. There are a few other areas where we believe that SMCM’s processes and practices are in compliance with the standard, but additional explicit documentation is needed - for example, a written or visual description of the SRI process, and a description of technological infrastructure.

Standard VII: Governance, Leadership & Administration
We expect to meet this standard. There are organized and transparent governance structures among faculty, among staff, and among students. The responsibilities and practices of the Board of Trustees, the president, and the administration are clearly articulated and in compliance with the standard’s expectations. We look forward to the conversations with external consultants regarding shared governance that will happen this spring, which will provide much-needed evidence of the assessment of SMCM’s governance processes. Another gap area that is in the process of being addressed concerns the use of assessment data to enhance campus operations; while there is clear evidence from divisional annual reports that decision making is solidly based on data and evidence, the recent establishment and implementation of a centralized administrative assessment system will be a strong addition to our ability to meet this criterion. Finally, we will be making recommendations about further improving campus governance and assessment processes; we would welcome continued conversations with trustees regarding our ideas.

Requirements of Affiliation and Verification of Compliance
We expect to meet all of the requirements in these areas. This work group is tasked with providing documents, processes, and procedures that show that we are adhering to the MSCHE Requirements of Affiliation and Verification of Compliance. Currently, we are in receipt of about 85% of the evidence that we need to complete the two required reports. We expect to receive the remaining 15% during the Spring 2024 semester.