Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

Commission actions preceding this report: February 25, 1999: The Commission reaffirmed accreditation and requested a report by October 1, 2000, on progress made in the area of outcomes assessment.

November 21, 2000: The Commission acted to accept the follow-up report submitted by Goucher College, and to request that the Periodic Review Report of June 2004 address further progress in the implementation of the outcomes assessment plan.

Date of the Evaluation Team’s Visit: October 11-14, 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………… 1

Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 2

A. Responsive Leadership in a Time of Transformation………….. 3 B. The Strategic Plan……………………………………………… 7 C. Additional Financial Resources: The Campaign……………… 9 D. Methodology of Preparation of Report………………………… 10 E. Objectives and Format of the Report…………………………… 11

Part I: Overview of Goucher College…………………………………… 13

A. Values………………………………………………………….. 13 B. Governance…………………………………………………….. 14 C. Faculty…………………………………………………………. 14 D. Administration……………………………………………….… 17 E. Staff ………………………………………………………….… 17 F. Facilities………………………………………………………... 18 G. Academic Programs……………………………………………. 19 H. Memberships…………………………………………………… 21 I. Enrollment……………………………………………………... 21 J. Marketing and Student Recruitment…………………………… 27 K. Student Life……………………………………………………. 27 L. Financial Matters………………………………………………. 28 M. Budgetary Procedures, Reporting, and Systems……………….. 31 N. Financial Aid…………………………………………………… 31 O. Investments…………………………………………………….. 32 P. Fundraising Activity…………………………………………… 34 Q. Insurance……………………………………………………….. 35 R. Outstanding Indebtedness……………………………………… 35 S. Retirement Plan………………………………………………… 36 T. Institutional Research ………………………………………….. 36

Part II: Changes Since Last Report………………………………………… 38

A. Development of the Academic Program: Curriculum………... 38 B. Faculty Development………………………………………..… 40 C. A More Vibrant and Diverse Community…………………..… 41 D. Facilities……………………………………………………..… 43

i Part III: Responses to the Self-Study and Evaluation Reports…………… 45

A. Faculty Work and Scholarship…………………………………. 45 B. The Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies……... 49 C. Computing and Technology……………………………………. 53 D. Library………………………………………………………….. 58 E. Student Services………………………………………………... 61 F. Coeducation…………………………………………………….. 68 G. Outcomes Assessment…………………………………………. 69

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… 77

Appendices……………………………………………………………………… 78

I. Strategic Plan insert, Goucher Quarterly, April 2004, “Marking the Map of the World”

II. Briefing Booklet, “Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind, A Bold New Vision for Goucher College, September 2003”

III. Profile of Graduates from the Class of 2002

IV. Goucher College Board of Trustees, 2004-05

V. Fall 2004, Frontiers Course Descriptions

VI. Goucher College Dashboard Indicators, May 2004

VII. Curricular Transformation Group (CTG) II: Report and Recommendations, May 5, 2003 draft

VIII. 1/23/04 In Support of a Vibrant Intellectual Campus Community, 4th Draft of Combined Reports, September 12, 2003

IX. Faculty Senate Model

X. Bachelor of Arts with a Master of Arts in Teaching (BA/MAT) Proposed for Those Wishing an Alternative Route to Secondary Certification in Five Years, February 9, 2004

XI. Fall 2003, Frontiers Course Description

XII. Enrollment Management Five-Year Trend data

XIII. Curricular Transformation Group (CTG) III Cluster Course Proposal, September 29, 2003 ii XIV. Institutional Benchmark Report, November 2003, National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), The College Student Report

2003 CIRP Institutional Profile (1082-00), Goucher College, First Time Full Time

Additional Publications

Campus Handbook, Goucher College 2003-2004

Goucher College Fact Book, Fall 2003 & Fiscal Year 2003

Academic Catalogue, 2003-2004, Education Without Boundaries, Goucher College

Goucher College Financial Statements June 30, 2002 and 2001 (with independent auditors’ report thereon)

Goucher College Financial Statements June 30, 2003 and 2002 (with independent auditors’ report thereon)

Undergraduate Faculty Handbook draft

iii Executive Summary

Goucher College has changed significantly since the time of the last Middle States accreditation visit and report. There is a new leadership team, including the president and all vice presidents, and other members of the senior staff. There is an entirely new strategic plan, Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind, which charts a new vision of a Goucher education, including a significant focus on international and intercultural learning in all disciplines. The new plan is leading to major reform of the curriculum. Undergraduate applications and enrollments are up substantially, as are the credentials of entering students. Graduate programs have grown steadily and prudently. The discount rate is down, finances are sound, and the college is about to obtain its first-ever bond rating. Outstanding new faculty members have been hired in many disciplines. A major construction program is underway. During the summer of 2004, the Campus Loop Road and underground utilities are being moved in order to make room for a new 185-bed residence hall. Two new parking lots will be constructed at the north and south ends of campus, replacing an existing one at the center of campus; a power plant will also be constructed to serve the residence hall and other new buildings. Financing arrangements for the new residence hall will be complete in July, and ground will be broken for this project the following month, in order to complete it in time for occupancy in August 2005. The next step will be construction of the Athenaeum, home of Goucher’s future state-of-the art library and many related facilities, including group study rooms, eating and exercise areas, a commuter lounge, and an open forum. The state of Maryland has provided a $3 million capital grant toward this project, and the required match of these funds from private donations has already been accomplished. When the Athenaeum is complete, the Julia Rogers building that houses the existing library will be renovated to create new classrooms and faculty offices. The “silent phase” of a new capital campaign is underway, and substantial donations have been received to fund the building projects, faculty resources, and the international emphasis in the academic program. A growing number of Goucher students are traveling overseas, many for a full semester or a year of study, but even more to participate in the 14 innovative three-week intensive courses conducted in January or May/June. These programs, interdisciplinary in nature, are preceded and followed by courses on campus in which the students plan for and integrate their exposure to other cultures into their other intellectual experiences. During the coming academic year, the college will introduce its new International Portfolio Program, which will permit students from all disciplines to add a global dimension to their major, complete with language study at the advanced level. This Periodic Review Report has provided Goucher College an opportunity to review our accomplishments and focus on our new goals and plans. We recognize that there is still considerable work to be done in the areas of student retention and the graduation rate, as well as outcomes assessment. The report outlines the concrete steps the college will be taking in those areas before the next Middle States accreditation visit. In the meantime, Goucher is growing, creating, and discovering its future. Executive Summary

Goucher College has changed significantly since the time of the last Middle States accreditation visit and report. There is a new leadership team, including the president and all vice presidents, and other members of the senior staff. There is an entirely new strategic plan, Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind, which charts a new vision of a Goucher education, including a significant focus on international and intercultural learning in all disciplines. The new plan is leading to major reform of the curriculum. Undergraduate applications and enrollments are up substantially, as are the credentials of entering students. Graduate programs have grown steadily and prudently. The discount rate is down, finances are sound, and the college is about to obtain its first-ever bond rating. Outstanding new faculty members have been hired in many disciplines.

A major construction program is underway. During the summer of 2004, the Campus Loop Road and underground utilities are being moved in order to make room for a new 185-bed residence hall. Two new parking lots will be constructed at the north and south ends of campus, replacing an existing one at the center of campus; a power plant will also be constructed to serve the residence hall and other new buildings. Financing arrangements for the new residence hall will be complete in July, and ground will be broken for this project the following month, in order to complete it in time for occupancy in August 2005.

The next step will be construction of the Athenaeum, home of Goucher’s future state-of-the art library and many related facilities, including group study rooms, eating and exercise areas, a commuter lounge, and an open forum. The state of Maryland has provided a $3 million capital grant toward this project, and the required match of these funds from private donations has already been accomplished. When the Athenaeum is complete, the Julia Rogers building that houses the existing library will be renovated to create new classrooms and faculty offices. The “silent phase” of a new capital campaign is underway, and substantial donations have been received to fund the building projects, faculty resources, and the international emphasis in the academic program.

A growing number of Goucher students are traveling overseas, many for a full semester or a year of study, but even more to participate in the 14 innovative three-week intensive courses conducted in January or May/June. These programs, interdisciplinary in nature, are preceded and followed by courses on campus in which the students plan for and integrate their exposure to other cultures into their other intellectual experiences. During the coming academic year, the college will introduce its new International Portfolio Program, which will permit students from all disciplines to add a global dimension to their major, complete with language study at the advanced level.

This Periodic Review Report has provided Goucher College an opportunity to review our accomplishments and focus on our new goals and plans. We recognize that there is still considerable work to be done in the areas of student retention and the graduation rate, as well as outcomes assessment. The report outlines the concrete steps the college will be taking in those areas before the next Middle States accreditation visit. In the meantime, Goucher is growing, creating, and discovering its future.

1

Introduction

Goucher College is an independent, co-educational liberal arts college. It was founded in 1885 as the Women’s College of Baltimore, and was re-named Goucher College in 1910 in honor of its founder and second president, Dr. John Franklin Goucher, and his wife, Mary Fisher Goucher. Today, the college is known as a place where people come to open themselves to the full range of possibilities afforded by a true liberal arts and sciences education. It is a small college with a big view of the world—an intellectual community without borders.

Goucher College is dedicated to a liberal arts education that prepares students within a broad, humane perspective for a life of inquiry, creativity, and critical and analytical thinking. The principal objectives of the college are to help each student master significant areas of knowledge and skills while developing an appreciation for individual and cultural diversity, a sense of social responsibility, and a system of personal and professional ethics. We encourage each member of our community to grow, create, and discover the worlds around us and within us.

Goucher is distinctive in having had two planned campuses, the original Baltimore City campus built in the late 19th century, and the current campus in Towson, Maryland, in Baltimore County. Most of the buildings of this second campus were constructed between 1942 and 1957. By 1955, the trustees and administration had disposed of all college property in the city.

In Fall 2003, the college enrolled 1,326 undergraduates. These students pursue degree work through 18 departments, 5 interdisciplinary programs, and a number of self-designed majors. The college also offers the M.Ed. and M.A.T. in education, the master of arts in arts administration and historic preservation, and the M.F.A. in creative nonfiction.

Our enrollment program is robust. The entering first-year undergraduate class in Fall 2003 totaled 342 students from 34 states and 6 foreign countries. Applications for that class numbered 2,715, and the admission rate was 62.8 percent, the most selective since the 1986 decision by the trustees to transform Goucher into a coeducational institution. [JPS1]Moreover, the mean, unweighted high school GPA for the Class of 2007 in academic courses was 3.23; the average combined SAT I scores totaled 1209, or 34 points above the previous class; and the discount rate, that is, the total of institutional financial aid grants, need- and merit-based, as a percentage of gross tuition, was 41.6 percent, lowered from 46.1 percent for the Class of 2006. For the first time since coeducation, the proportion of males in the entering class reached 40 percent, an increase of 12 points over the previous class.

The applicant pool for the Class of 2008 set a record for the college at 2,864. The college seeks to enroll 365 first-year students in Fall 2004, 23 more than in 2003, and to lower the discount rate an additional 1.6 points, to 40 percent. As of June 15, 2004, the entering class for Fall 2004 has exceeded expectations, numbering 398 students with a discount rate of 37.8 percent. This represents a one-point increase in the yield over last year, and a four-point decline in the discount rate. The students in the Class of 2008 hail from 39 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 2 foreign countries. The average grade point average of the entering class is 3.21; the mean combined SAT I scores total 1189. The male-to-female ratio is currently 33:67. We

2 are proud to report that, as compared to Fall 2001, applications to Goucher College have increased by more than one-third, the admission rate has dropped almost five points, the average SAT I scores have increased three points, and the discount rate has been lowered from 50 percent to 37.8 percent.

A. Responsive Leadership in a Time of Transformation

Since receiving notification of the reaffirmation of accreditation status by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 1999, Goucher College has continued to grow, create, and discover. We have achieved significant progress in defining strategic priorities that will give us a powerful curriculum as evidenced by a wide range of qualitative and quantitative assessments. We believe this Periodic Review Report will demonstrate that we have sustained and strengthened the quality of our institution, that our goals are well defined and appropriate, and that we are establishing processes and procedures to meet those goals. We have heeded and addressed the recommendations of the 1999 accreditation review with much success.

Our college community has much reason to be proud of its recent achievements. While none of us in 1999 could have foreseen the dramatic challenges in our future, all who know Goucher would expect our responses to have been immediate and effective.

Change came to Goucher rapidly following the Commission’s 1999 review. President Judy Jolley Mohraz announced that she would be leaving Goucher in late July 2000 to accept a position as president of the Virginia G. Piper Trust. The trustees announced that Dr. Robert S. Welch, Goucher’s vice president and academic dean, would serve as acting president during the 2000-01 academic year. Dr. Peter Bardaglio, professor of history, was chosen to be the interim vice president and academic dean.

The trustees immediately began a nation-wide search for the college’s next president. During the next nine months, under the leadership of board chair Marilyn Southard Warshawsky, Goucher class of 1968, a committee of trustees, faculty, students, staff, and alumnae/i worked with consultant A. T. Kearney. Our bright future became much clearer when the Board of Trustees named Sanford J. Ungar as Goucher’s tenth president in March 2001. He would become president on July 1, 2001. In three years, President Ungar has given the college the type of leadership and the depth of confidence it needs to develop and implement a vision that ensures Goucher’s place as a strong academic institution of the 21st century.

A highly accomplished print and broadcast journalist, President Ungar has served in leadership roles at several of the nation’s preeminent journalistic institutions. He has been director of Voice of America, dean of the School of Communication at American University, managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, and host of National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He has received an Emmy award from the Chicago chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and an award from the American Association of University Women for his work on All Things Considered. He currently is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Mr. Ungar is a 1966 magna cum laude graduate

3 of Harvard College with a degree in government. He received a Master of Science degree in international history from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1967.

Our community concurs with the statement made by the chair of the Board of Trustees upon the announcement that Sandy Ungar had accepted Goucher’s call.

Sandy Ungar brings to our beautiful campus enormous strengths as a leader with high expectations that match our goals and aspirations. He will clearly enhance the intellectual environment here at Goucher. We are extremely pleased to have a person of his proven talents in so many arenas as our next president—he is the embodiment of the liberal arts ideal.

As noted earlier, upon the resignation of President Mohraz, an acting president became the leader of the college. Within the next seven months, due to resignations prompted by professional opportunities or personal situations, three additional vice presidential positions became interim in status: the vice president and dean of students; the vice president of enrollment management; and the vice president of advancement. Although the senior leadership team would not be fully staffed again with permanent appointees until the spring of 2003, the circumstances gave President Ungar the opportunity to build a powerful team that shares his vision and enthusiasm. They are (in alphabetical order):

Vice Presidents

Michael Curry, vice president and academic dean, appointed 2002. During his 15 years as a faculty member in the Department of Theatre, Mr. Curry served as the chair of the faculty, director of the First Year Seminar program, chair of the arts division, and chair of the department. He has served on the Faculty Advisory Council of the Maryland Higher Education Commission and currently is the co-chair of a statewide organization of deans from all segments of higher education. He has directed and acted in numerous theatrical productions on campus and in the Baltimore area, and has performed in special programs for the Maryland Historical Society and the Baltimore Science Center. He received a B.A. in communications from John Carroll University in 1981, and an M.F.A. in directing from Indiana University in 1987.

Gail Neverdon Edmonds, vice president and dean of students, appointed 2003. Ms. Edmonds came to Goucher in 1998 as associate dean of students. Involved in student affairs for the last 15 years, she first served as a specialist for academically and economically disadvantaged students, and later became director of the Office of Minority Affairs and Affirmative Action at Essex Community College. She was a full-time faculty member at Coppin State College, and an adjunct faculty member at several other institutions. She co-chairs the ACE Maryland Network for Women and sits on the board of the National Academy for Leadership and Executive Effectiveness for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. She is a member of the boards of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, the Montessori Society of Central Maryland, and the Minority Achievement Advisory Group for Baltimore County Public Schools. She received a B.A. in 1970 from Morgan State University, an M.A. in education in 1976 from Chapman University, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration in 1997 from the University of Texas at Austin.

4

Donna Hooven Frithsen, vice president for development and alumnae/i affairs, appointed 2002. Prior to her Goucher employment, Ms. Frithsen was the executive director for university development and vice president of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation. She served the Johns Hopkins University for 10 years as director of the Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine for Departmental Programs, and as director of development for psychiatry and clinical neurosciences. Ms. Frithsen has directed institutional development for Trinity Repertory Company and Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, and alumni development for West Chester University. She also has served as alumni activities coordinator and assistant director of student activities at Glassboro State College, and as assistant director of student activities for Stockton State College. She received a B.A. in philosophy and theology in 1978 from Boston College, and an M.A. in communications in 1991 from Glassboro State College.

Roberto Noya, vice president for enrollment management, appointed 2003. Mr. Noya’s experience in college admissions includes 12 years as dean of college admissions and financial aid at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey; seven years as associate dean for recruitment at Princeton University; three years as director of admissions of New College for the University of South Florida in Sarasota, Florida; and two years in the Harvard University admissions office. His career in education began at his Jesuit high school in Puerto Rico, where he worked for four years teaching English, chairing the department, and serving as summer-school principal. Mr. Noya has been a member of the Association of Black Admissions and Financial Aid Officers of the Ivy league and Sister Schools, and of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC), serving for two years as a delegate to the NACAC national convention. He received a B.A. from New York University in 1973, and his M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1978.

W. Thomas Phizacklea, vice president for finance, appointed 1999. Before joining Goucher, Mr. Phizacklea was vice president for finance and administration at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, for seven years. From 1982 to 1993, Mr. Phizacklea worked in a number of capacities at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. He also currently chairs the Baltimore Area College and University Chief Financial Officers, and is a board member of the Ten Hills Neighborhood Association. He received a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, in 1981 and an M.B.A. from Mount St. Mary’s College in 1990.

Debra Rubino, vice president for communications, appointed 2000. Ms. Rubino began her service to Goucher College in 1998, as executive director of communications. Before that, she served for 10 years as director, and then associate vice president of communications at the Maryland Institute College of Art. From 1984 to 1988, she was director of communications at Ursinus College, and prior to that, promotion manager at University of Pennsylvania Press. Since 1999, she has served as president of the Governing Board of the Baltimore Collegetown Network, a consortium of 13 colleges and universities in the region. She has served as a board member of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance since 2000. An active, professional visual artist, Ms. Rubino most recently exhibited a series of lithographs and etchings at the Turner Carroll in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in June 2004. She received a B.A. in English in 1975 from

5 Franklin and Marshall College and an M.F.A. in photography in 1992 from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Other Members of the Senior Staff

Wendy Belzer, special assistant to the president, appointed 2004. Before coming to Goucher College in June 2004, Ms. Belzer was communications director for United States Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). Prior to working on Capitol Hill, she served as President Ungar’s special assistant at the Voice of America from October 1999 through June 2001. During that time, she received a special award for her work on diversity issues and equal employment opportunities. She also worked for President Ungar as assistant to the dean at the School of Communication at American University from September 1996 through April 1998, playing a key role in the academic and co-curricular affairs of the school. She has been chair of the Government and Public Affairs Section of the Public Relations Society of America and served as an events and media liaison for the Women's Foreign Policy Group. She is fluent in Spanish and has traveled extensively overseas. Ms. Belzer received the B.A. summa cum laude in Spanish from Boston College in 1993, and an M.A. in International Communication and Latin American Studies from American University in 1997.

Laurie Burton-Graham, general counsel, appointed 2001. Before beginning service in this part-time position, Ms. Burton-Graham served for 12 years as an assistant attorney general in the education division of the Maryland Attorney General’s office, including eight years as counsel to the Maryland School for the Deaf. Ms. Burton-Graham has served as an arbitrator for the U.S. Department of Education, has clerked for a federal district judge in Baltimore, and has taught English as a second language in the U.S. and abroad. A certified mediator, she performs volunteer mediations for the district court system of her local county. She currently serves as president of the Board of Trustees of Gibson Island Country School. Ms. Burton-Graham is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association and the National Association of College and University Attorneys. She graduated summa cum laude from Beloit College in 1976, received a master’s degree in education from Boston University in 1978, and earned a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1984.

Bill Leimbach, chief technology officer, appointed 2002. From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Leimbach served as the associate vice president of computing and network services at Towson University. He was the director of computer services for the Community College of Baltimore County from 1986 to 1996, responsible for managing the development and operation of administrative and academic computer information systems, networks, technology infrastructure, and technology services. A project manager for Westinghouse from 1985 to 1986, he developed a contract information system and an automated shipping system in a Department of Defense manufacturing environment. He served as programmer/analyst for the Virginia Community College system from 1977 to 1984, developing management information systems. Mr. Leimbach recently served as the chair of the University System of Maryland Academic Telecommunications System Council. He is a member of the nonprofit association EDUCAUSE, whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. He received a B.S. in computer science from Virginia Tech in 1980 and an M.B.A. from Radford University in 1984.

6

An Event that Fortifies the Vision

No discussion of the past five years can ignore the events of one singular day, September 11, 2001. The sense of shock and anger we all felt will never be forgotten. One lasting effect of that crisis, however, is that those 24 hours solidified our vision of a 21st-century liberal arts education. As President Ungar said in his reflections to the college community at a memorial program one year later:

We believe that in responding to the hurt and harm arising from a vicious crime, it is possible to accomplish something beyond revenge – to educate our own people, beginning with our children; to understand others, in their languages as well as ours; and to search for new avenues of communication. Soon, perhaps, we can stop asking the unanswerable question, “Why do they hate us?”, and work instead on figuring out what we need to learn about our world. Our challenge now is not to mount a bigger and better marketing and advertising campaign to sell ourselves and our way of life, but to engage the rest of the world in a manner that leaves room to respect the way that others live.

Ultimately, the experiences of September 2001 made our engagement with the world not merely a rich Goucher tradition, but an educational necessity.

B. The Strategic Plan

A Vision Begins In Spring 2000, President Mohraz began the process of creating the college’s next strategic plan. She asked a small group of faculty, students, staff, alumnae/i, and trustees to serve on a committee that would be known as the “strategic explorations group.” One year later, the group gave the college community a document that describes the environment surrounding the Goucher experience. That text put forth proactive ideas and synergistic approaches in the context of the challenges of our larger world.

With the arrival of Sanford J. Ungar as Goucher’s tenth president in July 2001, the community could now confidently focus on the creation of a vision-directed strategic plan based on that text. President Ungar created a new committee of stakeholders, and asked this “strategic planning group” to write the broad outline of a new vision for the college. The tragedy of September 2001 forced us to reconsider all our efforts. For the next nine months, a broad-based strategic planning group worked intensively to capture on paper how we, as an institution, might strengthen our mission by strengthening our engagement with the world around us. In Spring 2002, the planning group presented its document to the community and, in May of that year, the Board of Trustees enthusiastically and unanimously approved Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind: A Bold New Vision for Goucher College. A copy of the Strategic Plan is included in the PRR package. Also, see Appendix I, “Marking the Map of the World,” a reprint of the Strategic Plan insert from the April 2004 Goucher Quarterly.

7 Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind is an ambitious, multi-faceted program. Our vision is rooted in the belief that in the 21st century, every academic inquiry and intellectual endeavor must have a global context. Our plan concentrates our energies on the development of three programs: the transformation of our curriculum, the transformation of our community, and the transformation of our campus.

Transcending Boundaries in our Academic Program will give our students a curriculum that remains strong in the liberal arts and sciences, but is strengthened further by palpable connections with the world beyond the campus gates. We will design and offer courses that provide opportunities for meaningful international study in every discipline. Guided by our faculty, we will restructure our academic program and calendar so that they better support the innovative ways we connect learning to first-hand experience in the real world. We will develop more service-learning and community service experiences and internships, and we will create better ways to help new students become members of the Goucher community of scholars.

Superior teachers are key to our achievement of our goals. Therefore, we pledge to increase the size, strength, and diversity of our faculty.

A More Vibrant and Diverse Campus Community will give Goucher the tools to maintain and expand its special definition of “campus life.” We will increase the size of our undergraduate student body to 1,500 before the end of the decade. We will increase the diversity of our students and faculty, while enhancing selectivity—working to attract and retain the best and brightest scholars we can find. Furthermore, we will provide the resources necessary to promote a vibrant environment on campus, build a new residence hall to accommodate the increased size of our undergraduate student body, augment the variety and quality of educational experiences outside the classroom, broaden the relationship between our alumnae/i and our campus, and develop more collaborations with other institutions of higher education in the region.

The plans for Academic Facilities that Transcend Boundaries will transform the physical configuration of our campus. We will create new kinds of spaces that encourage intellectual interaction and collaboration.

Our construction of an Athenaeum will be the most prominent and important manifestation of our ideal of the liberal arts. In the classical tradition, the Athenaeum will house an expanded library, dining facilities, performance and lecture halls, group-study space, and other common areas, that will serve as the intellectual, social, technological, and cultural center of the Goucher community.

In the Athenaeum, we envision a space that merges the resources of a state-of-the-art college library with the energy that arises when world-class visitors come to our campus to exchange ideas with the members of this extraordinary community. As the library moves to become the anchor of this new facility, we will be able to renovate the existing Julia Rogers library building to provide more and better space for our growing academic departments, for improved faculty offices, and for innovative classroom spaces that also bear the imprint of our new educational vision, both in their design and in their implementation of the full range of current instructional technology.

8

In August 2004, we will begin construction of a new residence hall. Its design will give students opportunities to explore a variety of living configurations, including suites and apartments for upperclass students. It will be ready for occupancy in August 2005.

In all of our facilities, we will envision and create new kinds of spaces that encourage through their very design the kind of interaction and collaboration we hope to foster among the members of our community. We will hold foremost in our minds the goal of realizing a vision whose paramount values are innovation in thinking and action in the world, and we will ensure that this vision is reflected throughout the college—not just in our curriculum, events, and programs, but also in the very face of the campus.

C. Additional Financial Resources: The Campaign

Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind represents a unique opportunity to propel the college towards a stronger and healthier future. Its implementation will assure Goucher of a national profile. The trustees and the president recognize, however, that the realization of the plan will require additional financial resources beyond the normal revenue streams.

The college’s leadership is working diligently to give our community the resources it needs to complete a successful, comprehensive fundraising effort. For example, with the approval of its president and trustees, the college retained the services of Grenzebach Glier & Associates Inc. as fundraising counsel in Spring 2002. Having earlier performed a formal assessment of our campaign readiness, in August 2002, we asked Grenzebach Glier to conduct an electronic evaluation of our donors and potential donors. Their report gives us a clear understanding of who our likely supporters are, and how much support they might give.

During the 2003-04 academic year, our leadership conducted a feasibility study to assess the readiness of Goucher’s stakeholders to support a major fundraising campaign. It is anticipated that the Board will approve a test-goal in late 2005 following the initial silent phase of the campaign, which is currently underway. As of June 14, 2004, the college has secured gifts that total $12 million, including a multi-million dollar capital grant from the State of Maryland, in support of this campaign.

In the fall of 2003, the trustees and the president created the Campaign Planning Committee, a group of 19 prominent alumnae/i and friends of Goucher who have agreed to develop the campaign plan, leading up to a public launching of the next comprehensive fundraising campaign. Since August 2003, the Committee has met eight times. The Committee, led by Goucher fundraising veteran Margo Messler Winslow, a trustee and 1969 Goucher graduate, also includes President Ungar, trustees, alumnae/i, parents, special friends of the college, and the vice president of development and alumnae/i affairs. The Campaign Planning Committee will dissolve after recommending final campaign priorities and goals to the Board of Trustees, and, at that time, it will be replaced by the Campaign Steering Committee.

9 The responsibilities of the Campaign Planning Committee are as follows:

1. to assist the president and the trustees in the establishment of specific campaign priorities; 2. to help create and approve a clear, compelling, and comprehensive case for support; 3. to set a target figure tied to a potential gift table and naming opportunities; 4. to identify and shape strategies for engaging potential campaign volunteer leaders; 5. to assist staff and others in building the prospect base for leadership gifts by providing information, entrée, and assistance; 6. to work with the president and others to identify, cultivate, solicit, and close leadership gifts; 7. to help identify prospective donors and stakeholders outside and beyond Goucher’s traditional constituencies; and 8. to craft a plan to provide the necessary and appropriate resources to assure the campaign’s success.

Strategic Plan Briefings, small gatherings of Goucher stakeholders held throughout the country have been presented opportunities to meet with the president and/or the academic dean to learn more about Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind. The first briefing was held in June 2003 in New York City, and, to date, we have held 38 meetings in 15 states for 456 individuals. Attendees have been extremely positive in their reactions to the plan. See Appendix II, the Briefing Booklet given to all participants in advance of the meetings.

We have accomplished much in the fundraising arena since the formal approval of our Strategic Plan in May 2002. We therefore state with confidence that the campaign will be successful.

D. Methodology of Preparation of the Report

In Fall 2003, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education informed President Sanford J. Ungar that the Periodic Review Report would be due in June 2004. Michael Curry, vice president and academic dean, coordinated the preparation of the document. The following people contributed to its writing:

Individual Representing

Michael Curry Senior Staff and Faculty PRR Chair Vice President and Academic Dean Gail Edmonds Senior Staff Vice President and Dean of Students Bill Leimbach Senior Staff Chief Technology Officer Roberto Noya Senior Staff Vice President for Enrollment Management Matt Warshaw Senior Staff Special Assistant to the President

10 Florence Martin Faculty Chair of the Faculty Professor of French Carol Mills Faculty Professor of Psychology

Janine L. Bowen Staff and Faculty Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs Professor of Economics Beth Chernichowski Staff Sponsored Research and Corporate & Foundation Relations Jeanne Hunt Staff Administrative Support Frederick H. Mauk Staff Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Studies Professor of Music Nancy Magnuson Staff College Librarian Eric Singer Staff and Faculty Associate Dean of International Studies Professor of International Studies

As coordinator, Dean Curry created a tentative outline of the contents of the report, gathered appropriate documents needed to support its contents, made assignments to faculty and staff to research and draft segments of the report, and set a series of dates for each task’s completion. In June 2004, the document was edited, and then sent to the president, who wrote the Executive Summary.

E. Objectives and Format of the Report

Objectives This Periodic Review Report offers an update of Goucher’s vision of a liberal arts education. We will describe components and features of how we are realizing our mission “to prepare students within a broad, humane perspective for a life of inquiry, creativity, and critical and analytical thinking.” The objectives of this report are those suggested by the Commission in its Guidelines for Institutional Reports. Specifically, the details contained in this report will:

1. Demonstrate the extent of Goucher’s current self-study and future planning processes; 2. Assess the impact of significant developments and changes since the last evaluation; 3. Assess Goucher’s response to the recommendations of the previous evaluation; 4. Review the college’s enrollment trends, financial status, and enrollment and financial prospects; and 5. Judge the effectiveness of outcomes assessment and its relationship to institutional decision-making.

11 Format The first part of the report presents a general overview of the college. It presents a discussion of the college’s values, governance, faculty, administration, staff, facilities, academic programs, memberships, enrollment, marketing, student life, finances, budgetary procedures, financial aid, investments, fundraising activity, insurance, indebtedness, retirement plans, and institutional research.

Part II reports changes since 1998 in the college’s curriculum, faculty, campus, and facilities. We indicate, too, our plans for each area.

Part III addresses the responses we have made to date to the recommendations of the Commission’s 1998 and 2000 Self-Study and Evaluation Reports. Here, the text of the Commission’s report is presented in bold italics, and our responses follow.

The appendices contain official college documents that supplement the report. Five appendices (VII, VIII, IX, X, and XIII) are internal papers or proposals. The remaining are considered public papers.

12

GOUCHER COLLEGE

Periodic Review Report

I. Overview of Goucher College

A. Values

Connection. Goucher College presents a curriculum that is strong not only in the liberal arts and sciences, but also in its connections with the world beyond the campus gates. Goucher has been a pioneer in linking a liberal arts education to experiential learning. Thirty years ago, the college made off-campus experiences (internships, study abroad, or student teaching) a required component of every student’s academic program.

Diversity. Goucher is committed to institutional changes that support the exploration of diversity. We are committed to increasing the overall size of the student body, and along with that, we are committed to developing a stronger presence from among underrepresented groups. We are also committed to increasing the number of faculty and staff from under-represented populations. Of course, along with those changes, there needs to be a commitment to transform the curriculum, develop ways to support a diverse community population, and foster an institutional culture that supports diversity. We will look for ways of collaborating with other area colleges and universities, and increase the presence of students from other countries.

Goucher students learn to value a global outlook, as well. The college’s varied and well- developed international experience programs enable students to encounter different cultures, and challenge them to ask how diversity might be interpreted in everyday life.

Participation. Above all, the curriculum encourages students to be participants. For decades, Goucher has been a leader in offering its students community service and service-learning opportunities. The service credit option offers additional course credit for students who integrate service experiences into their academic coursework.

Participation also means being an active student. Goucher has numerous service-learning and community service programs, as well as an endowed professorship of service learning. Our students, therefore, are encouraged to volunteer their services and skills to the Baltimore City schools, to Baltimore community associations, and to local and national nonprofit service organizations.

Goucher students are involved and well-rounded. It is not unusual for a chemistry major to star in a theater production, for a dance student to perform National Science Foundation-funded research in biology, or for a history student to excel on the track team and in creative writing courses.

13 Interaction. Close interaction with faculty members is another cornerstone of a Goucher education. Students and teachers frequently collaborate on significant projects in every discipline. The nature of the campus itself encourages formal and informal gatherings that allow the community to explore intellectual curiosity.

Transformation. A Goucher education results in transformation. During their years at Goucher, students grow academically and personally in dramatic and surprising ways. They leave with a strengthened sense of direction, possibility, self-confidence, and individual empowerment. Not surprisingly, statistics show that Goucher graduates are very successful in their pursuit of careers and advanced study. See Appendix III, Profile of Graduates from the Class of 2002.

B. Governance

Goucher College is governed by a Board of Trustees. The Board is authorized to include up to 50 members, and presently there are 42 trustees, two ex-officio trustees (the president of the college, and the president of the alumnae/i association), and 13 trustees emeriti. The Board is responsible for overseeing the college’s overall quality, integrity, and fiscal solvency, and for the realization of the college’s mission, while the day-to-day administration of the institution is the responsibility of the college president. The Board meets three times each academic year. See Appendix IV, Goucher College Board of Trustees, 2004-2005.

The Board conducts its business through six task forces: academic affairs, campus life, development and alumnae/i affairs, facilities, and trusteeship. Within the finance task force are four subcommittees: audit, budget, compensation, and endowment. The Executive Committee is composed of the chairs of task forces, along with the president and the chair and vice-chair of the Board. The Executive Committee meets seven times a year.

C. Faculty

The faculty is Goucher’s most important resource. Collectively, its members not only represent the broad and multifaceted body of knowledge that we may pass on to students, but also function as the primary means of communicating our institutional ideals, values, and objectives. If we are to attain the bold new objectives we have set forth for Goucher College, we must continue to maintain and develop an extraordinary faculty to support them. We must ensure that it is large and strong enough to meet the needs and demands of a larger and stronger academic program and student body. And we must cultivate diversity within it to reflect a full range of perspectives in the discourse in which we engage.

We have made great strides in these areas since 2001, appointing outstanding junior faculty members to tenure-track positions in our biology, chemistry, English, French, history, political science, psychology, and Spanish departments. We will continue to build on these advances— and to ensure that our faculty and staff represent the widest possible variety of cultures, backgrounds, and points of view—by actively targeting previously under-represented groups in our recruiting efforts. One goal of the capital campaign to realize our strategic vision will be to endow new faculty positions, enabling us to hire still more outstanding mid-career and senior-

14 level scholars and teachers, and to bring distinguished visiting faculty to campus for a year or more.

Goucher’s faculty consists of 106 full-time members (four currently on administrative assignments), 33 half-time faculty (who teach three or four courses a year and sometimes have administrative duties such as advising), and 42 part-time lecturers. More than 87 percent of full- time faculty members hold the doctorate or terminal degree in their field of study; 52.8 percent are tenured. Women compose 60.8 percent of the faculty.

During the last 10 years, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty has increased from 92.7 in Fall 1993 to 119.0 in Fall 2003—an increase of 28.11 percent. In that same timeframe, we were able to increase the number of full-time equivalent faculty by 23.5 percent, thereby lessening our reliance upon part-time faculty. The number of FTE students increased 51.9 percent, from 853 in Fall 1993 to 1295.6 in Fall 2003. The current student-to-faculty ratio is 10 to 1.

Undergraduate Full-Time Faculty by Ethnicity, Fall 1993 -2003

Total Minority African Asian Hispanic Non-Resident White American Alien Faculty 73 5% 0 2 1 1 69 Fall 1993 0% 3% 1% 1% 95% Faculty 98 15% 7 3 5 0 83 Fall 2003 7% 3% 5% 0% 85%

While increasing minority representation within our undergraduate full-time faculty from 5 to 15 percent may seem enviable to many, we remain deeply committed to further efforts to create a truly diversified campus. Indeed, support of increased diversity is a critical priority of our Strategic Plan. Appreciation of diversity has been a core value of our mission since our founding in 1885. We know well that the pursuit never ends, but continues daily, in large and small ways. We do not choose to state a numerical goal as a way of achieving diversity. We choose instead to encourage continuous efforts toward the development of creative, campus-wide initiatives that promote inclusiveness, mutual respect, and a balanced understanding of all cultures.

All full-time tenured and full-time tenure-track faculty are expected to serve on both standing and ad-hoc committees as part of their service to the Goucher community. These include:

Administrative Committees • Academic Honor Board • Chemical Hygiene Committee • Diversity Committee • Discipline Appeals Board • Institutional Review Board

15 Faculty Governance Committees • Academic Policies • Budget and Planning • Curriculum • Dismissals • Faculty Affairs • Graduate Studies Committee • Grievance • Lectures and Fellowships • Nominations • Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure

Board of Trustees Task Forces • Academic Affairs • Campus Life • Development and Alumnae/i Affairs • Facilities • Finance (four subcommittees) Audit Budget Compensation Endowment • Trusteeship

Faculty Development Scholarship supports effective teaching, and the college encourages faculty members to balance their teaching responsibilities with continued research and scholarship. Goucher supports these endeavors in a variety of ways, including annual allocations of $100,000 for faculty research and travel; $40,000 for faculty summer research; $65,000 for summer scientific work with students; $9,000 for faculty development of pedagogical uses for technology; and $6,000 for the faculty grants-mentoring program. Finally, $20,000 is made available annually for curricular development. Smaller grants are available to faculty members who need support for the development of new courses or curricular programs.

The Faculty Grants Mentoring Program is Goucher’s creative response to the need to encourage faculty to win external funding. This stipend-based program presents workshops that teach faculty how to identify likely sources of funding, and how to write successful proposals. In 2003, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) honored Goucher for its innovative approach by awarding the program two citations: the Silver Accolades Award; and the Circle of Excellence Award, its highest national award for development programs.

16 Many of our faculty and academic programs have support from national and local foundations and government agencies. Recent support has come from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, the United States Army, Iota Sigma Pi (the national honor society for women in chemistry), and Research Corporation.

D. Administration

The administration of Goucher College is the responsibility of the president of the college. The president is assisted by six vice presidents, a chief technology officer, a special assistant, and a part-time general counsel. This advisory group is known as Senior Staff. The six vice presidential positions are:

• the vice president and academic dean, • the vice president and dean of students, • the vice president for finance, • the vice president for development and alumnae/i affairs, • the vice president for enrollment management, and • the vice president for communications.

We note that the chief technology officer’s presence on the president’s senior staff is an innovation that occurred in Spring 2002. President Ungar recognized the need to give the academic and the administrative technology services unified leadership, and he responded by creating this position. This officer is responsible for developing and implementing a master plan that demonstrates the ways that technology can support the institution's objectives in teaching, learning, research, service, and operations.

Senior Staff was created by President Ungar in 2002. Previously, College Council, whose membership included the vice presidents, college counsel, the special assistant to the president and two faculty members, was the single presidential advisory group. College Council continues to exist, but it has been expanded to include student and staff representatives. It serves as a second, presidential advisory group.

E. Staff

The college employs 332 non-faculty staff members—281 full time and 51 part time. The reduction of 38 staff positions that occurred between academic years 1999-00 and 2003-04 is a result of an ongoing re-evaluation process to create a more efficient staffing structure.

Goucher Staff

1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Full-time 295 297 289 293 281 Part-time 75 70 73 54 51 Total 370 367 362 347 332

17 Goucher College has established an Administrative Employees Association to promote the welfare of non-faculty employees, and to provide for formal and direct involvement by non- faculty employees in the administration of the College. The association also sponsors several social gatherings each year.

All service/maintenance employees of Goucher College are represented by labor unions. Management is not aware of any organizing activities outside of this class of employees and considers its relations with its employees to be excellent.

F. Facilities

The college owns approximately 287 acres in Baltimore County, Maryland, in a district known as Towson. The core campus covers 50 acres that are surrounded by woods. The buildings include the president’s house, five student residence halls, five athletic facilities, three classroom/faculty office buildings, a library, horse stables, a student center, an administration center, an alumnae/i house, and a chapel. The gross square footage of all buildings exceeds 800,000 square feet.

Construction of the Towson campus began in the 1940s, and most of the buildings were completed by the mid-1950s. Since then, the Sports and Recreation Center (SRC), the Todd Dance Studio, the track and stadium facility, the Meyerhoff Arts Center, and a residence hall have been added. A central heating and cooling plant was built in 1994, which now provides the HVAC for the majority of the campus buildings. In addition, significant renovations have been made to the buildings constructed between 1945 and 1955. They are the science building, the humanities building, the student center, a residence hall that also holds the safety and health offices, as well as public gathering spaces, and the alumnae/i house.

The college places a high priority on preserving the value of plant assets, and identifies facilities maintenance as one of the several essential elements in achieving long-term financial equilibrium. Since 1999, the college has invested approximately $35.4 million in capital and operating dollars to address program and maintenance needs.

Facilities Square Footage (as of 4/03)

Building Gross Square Feet

Alumnae/i House 7,646 Van Meter Hall 57,716 Hoffberger Science Building 82,265 New Residence Hall 21,032 Sports and Recreation Center 62,073 Meyerhoff Arts Center 30,854 Heubeck Hall 86,781

18 Facilities Square Footage (as of 4/03) continued

Building Gross Square Feet Stimson Hall 74,836 President's House 5,724 Psychology Annex 3,308 Lillian Welsh Gym 35,410 Julia Rogers Library 61,690 Todd Dance Studio 10,461 Stables 2,103 Rhoda M. Dorsey College Center 78,073 Haebler Chapel 8,923 Physical Plant 14,321 Mary Fisher Hall 103,383 Froelicher Hall 61,443 Heating and Cooling Plant 15,600 TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE 823,642

The age and capacity of the college’s library facility is a concern, and our Strategic Plan outlines our design to address this issue: we will build an Athenaeum that will serve as the intellectual, social, technological, and cultural center of the Goucher community. The innovative new building will house an expanded library, dining facilities, performance and lecture halls, group- study space, and other common areas.

G. Academic Programs

Goucher’s undergraduate program has 18 departments and 5 interdisciplinary programs. There are five undergraduate academic divisions: humanities; social sciences; natural sciences and mathematics; arts; and interdisciplinary studies.

All students share certain core academic experiences. One of these is Frontiers, a seminar required for first-year students during the fall semester. Frontiers topics span the range of inquiry, from race and ethnicity in America to the philosophy of science. The seminars emphasize collaborative learning and active membership in an academic environment characterized by independent thought, tolerance, and intellectual curiosity. See Appendix V, Fall 2004, Frontiers Course Descriptions.

Connections is designed to help students through the social transition into college life, and it is designed to be taught by faculty and staff working together as facilitators. Topics covered in this course explore a better understanding of the student’s self in the context of a learning community. Basic academic skills such as time management and good study practices are also covered. Connections also helps new students draw associations between what goes on inside the classroom and their experiences outside of class.

19

All students are expected to achieve writing proficiency, which is taught and assessed through the writing program, and is evaluated twice during their college career. The first proficiency assessment is known as the “college writing proficiency,” and its achievement signifies that the student has learned to write clear, coherent academic prose and knows how to complete library research. All incoming first-year and transfer students must submit a writing essay which is used to recommend the best route to achieve the college writing proficiency. Most first-year students can then attain college writing proficiency by completing a course in academic writing. A few students, however, may need an individualized program to meet the requirements of proficiency. The faculty and staff of the Writing Center create these special programs.

The second evaluation occurs within the context of the student’s major. Faculty members of each department or program define and assess writing proficiency for that course of study.

Competence in a language other than one’s own is an integral part of a liberal arts education. Language training has broad cultural implications and develops skills necessary to many careers. Therefore, at Goucher, all students are required to complete the intermediate level of a foreign language.

Computer proficiency is another designated requirement. This proficiency must be demonstrated through the student’s major department. Currently, the completion of two physical education courses by the end of the third year is also a requirement for graduation, though this requirement is under review.

The normal semester course load for students is generally 15 hours, or four to five courses1. Generally, courses carry three or four credits, depending on the number of class meeting hours, or whether a service-learning or lab component is part of the course. Students may also take advantage of another Goucher innovation: the three-week intensive course program, which offers diverse experiential and study-abroad opportunities during the January or early-summer terms.

Completion of a major is a requirement for the degree. Students must declare a major in the second semester of the sophomore year. Typically, the major is a program of 30 or more credit hours; a minimum of nine credit hours should be at the 300-level.

In keeping with the Goucher tradition of engaging the world outside the campus, all students are required to fulfill an off-campus experience through an internship, student teaching assignment, independent study, or study abroad. The college also encourages students to participate in community-based learning that combines community service with academic coursework.

International Studies In its Strategic Plan, the college community has renewed Goucher’s commitment to international and intercultural studies. Our vision is rooted in the belief that in the 21st century, every academic inquiry and intellectual endeavor must have a global context. Our plan completely rethinks the ways in which we will provide this kind of education. We begin by asserting that every student who enrolls at Goucher College will gain firsthand experience of the international

1 The five-course-per-semester load is in the process of being reviewed.

20 and intercultural aspects of his or her course of study through intensive programs connecting classroom learning with hands-on work in the local community, around the United States, and overseas.

The Office of International Studies has developed semester-long study-abroad partnerships with 21 institutions worldwide, including opportunities in India, Denmark, France, Ecuador, and Ghana. In addition, the college offers 14 different, three-week intensive courses taught by Goucher faculty in France, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Ghana, Italy, the Czech Republic, Cuba, Brazil, England, Spain, Romania, South Africa, and Greece.

Special Programs In conjunction with the Johns Hopkins University, the college offers the opportunity to earn both a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree in science and engineering in a five-year program. The Goucher II program, for non-traditional students and others returning to school, accepts up to 60 transfer credits from other institutions.

Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies Goucher offers degrees at the graduate level, including two degrees in education, the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.), and the Master of Education, (M.Ed.). The college also has growing post-baccalaureate pre-medical and post-baccalaureate teacher certificate programs, as well as five non-credit certificate programs. Through distance learning, Goucher awards master’s degrees in arts administration, and in historic preservation, and a master of fine arts degree in creative nonfiction. There are also professional certificate programs in fundraising management, historic preservation, marketing communications and public relations, meeting planning management, and nonprofit management. All of these programs are housed in the college’s Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies.

H. Memberships

Goucher College is an institutional member of the following higher education organizations:

• Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) • Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) • Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) • Maryland Independent Colleges and Universities (MICUA) • Middle States Commission on Higher Education (CHE) • American Council on Education (ACE) • National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU)

I. Enrollment

Since 1998, the college has increased its full-time equivalent (FTE) student (undergraduate plus graduate) enrollment by more than one-third, from 1,316.1 in the 1998-99 academic year, to 1,768.7 in 2003-04. This represents an 18-percent increase in undergraduate FTE enrollments, and a 115-percent increase in graduate school FTE enrollments.

21 Enrollments Undergraduate Plus Graduate 1998-2003

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Full-time 1,118 1,206 1,348 1,275 1,346 1,383 Part-time 366 494 625 721 756 944 Total headcount 1,484 1,700 1,973 1,996 2,102 2,327 % Full-time 75% 71% 68% 64% 64% 59% % Male 26% 26% 25% 25% 26% 27% FTEs 1,316 1,402 1,541 1,593 1,660 1,769 FTE % Change 6.5 9.9 3.4 4.2 6.6

Undergraduate Enrollment In 2001, the college initiated an aggressive undergraduate recruitment effort, which has been enhanced by its focus on the themes of the new Strategic Plan that was approved in May 2002. When comparing the class that enrolled in Fall 2001 to the class that will enroll in Fall 20042, this initiative has produced a 32-percent increase in applications. Moreover, the academic quality of incoming classes has improved even as we have reduced the tuition discount rate, that is, the total of institutional financial aid grants, need- and merit-based, as a percentage of gross tuition. The first-year class that entered in Fall 2003 boasts an average SAT I combined score of 1209. This is 34 points higher than that of the previous class. The discount rate for the Fall 2003 class was 41.6 percent, as compared to 46 percent for the previous year.

Goucher is continually evaluating its recruitment activities. The college routinely uses the Admitted Student Questionnaire, a yield survey instrument of the College Board, and participates in national surveys of first-year students. The communications office conducts focus-group sessions to evaluate specific marketing messages and strategies. In addition, the enrollment management division analyzes admissions and financial aid data to develop strategies for effectively leveraging institutional aid funds. These efforts, combined with the successful marketing of the new Strategic Plan, have enabled the college to enroll more students with the ability to pay the cost of attendance without being offered merit scholarships. This, in turn, has enabled the college to shift a greater proportion of its financial aid grant funds toward the demonstrated financial need of incoming students, and to adopt more generous need-based aid policies for returning students, in the hopes of increasing our retention and graduation rates.

The target numbers for the Fall 2004 first-year class are a final enrollment of 365 students, and a discount rate of 40 percent. As of June 15, 2004, 398 students have enrolled, and the discount rate is 37.8 percent.

[b2]Enrollment plans for the future include increasing undergraduate enrollments to 1,400 by Fall 2005, and to 1,500 by Fall 2008. Goucher anticipates that these increases will be achieved through a combination of new enrollments and improved retention rates.

2 Although the Fall 2004 cohort has not enrolled as of the time of the writing of this report, applications for the Class of 2008 are complete.

22 First-Year Applicants, Acceptances, and Matriculations 1998-2003

Class enrolling 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 in Fall Applicants 1,951 2,121 2,189 2,146 2,596 2,752 Acceptances 1,535 1,763 1,678 1,557 1,763 1,780 Acceptance Rate 78.7% 83.1% 76.7% 72.6% 67.9% 64.7% Matriculants 306 324 364 345 366 342 Matriculation 19.9% 18.4% 21.8% 22.2% 20.8% 19.2% Rate

Statistics for Matriculating Undergraduates

Class enrolling 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 in Fall SAT Mean 1174 1169 1171 1187 1175 1209 Average GPA 3.11 3.12 3.15 3.19 3.16 3.23 Within upper 29% 27% 30% 29% 25% 27% 10% of high school class

Undergraduate Enrollment

As of Fall of 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 each year Full-time 1,081 1,088 1,123 1,175 1,230 1,268 Part-time 56 43 72 46 40 58 Total Headcount 1,137 1,131 1,195 1,221 1,270 1,326 % Full-time 95% 96% 94% 96% 97% 96% % Male 27% 28% 27% 29% 30% 32% FTEs 1,095 1,103 1,170 1,199 1,248 1,293 FTE % Change 0.7 6.1 2.5 4.1 3.6

First-Year Retention Rate (Fall-to-Fall Retention of First-Time, First-Year Students)

Year of Entry 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Retention 75% 75% 82% 80% 80%

23 Graduation Rates after 4, 5, and 6 Years Entering Full-Time Freshmen Cohorts 1994 - 1999

First-Year Cohort from 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 4 years or less 51.4% 55.0% 61.6% 63.3% 56.0% 57.1% 5 years or less 57.4% 62.9% 68.7% 68.1% 62.0% NA Cumulative in 6 years 59.4% 64.7% 68.7% 69.0% 62.0% NA

Geographical Distribution of All Undergraduate Students

Class enrolling in Fall 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Maryland 39.1% 36.3% 38.2% 37.8% 35.4% 36.2% DC/DE/VA 4.5 4.5 4.9 5.2 4.4 4.6 Other Mid-Atlantic 28.3 29.6 29.6 29.8 30.0 29.2 New England 10.7 12.5 12.2 12.8 13.9 13.3 South 7.2 7.9 6.2 5.8 6.2 6.9 West 3.0 3.1 3.3 3.6 4.3 4.1 Midwest 3.0 2.9 3.1 2.9 2.3 2.8 U.S. Territories 0.8 0.6 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.2 International 3.3 2.7 2.2 1.9 2.1 1.1 Unknown 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.3 1.7

Tuition and Fees The comprehensive fee is defined as the cost of tuition, room and board, and student activity fees. Since 1998, the annual increase in the comprehensive fee has ranged from 3.66 percent to 4.53 percent, with the average annual being 3.95 percent.

Comprehensive Fee

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Tuition $19,415 $20,200 $21,000 $22,000 $22,950 $24,150 Room & Board 7,130 7,380 7,650 7,750 7,900 8,200 Student Fees 280 285 290 300 300 300 TOTAL $26,825 $27,865 $28,940 $30,050 $31,150 $32,650

Graduate Enrollment The college offers the M.Ed. and M.A.T. in education, the M.A. in arts administration and historic preservation, and the M.F.A. in creative nonfiction. In addition, there are five non-credit certificate programs, a post-baccalaureate premed program, and a curriculum for non-traditional undergraduates.

24

Total Graduate Enrollment: All Programs

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Full-time headcount 37 118 102 100 116 115 Part-time headcount 310 451 676 675 716 886 Total headcount 347 569 778 775 832 1001 % FT 11% 21% 13% 13% 14% 11% % Male 24% 23% 21% 18% 20% 20% FTE 221.2 298.4 371.2 394.2 411.3 476

Graduate Headcount Enrollment by Program Fall 1996-2003

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Arts Administration 11 24 35 44 42 38 Historic Preservation 30 37 37 37 41 45 44 43 Education (M.Ed.) 159 131 146 309 531 465 507 623 Creative Nonfiction 19 36 32 23 29 38 42 Teaching (M.A.T.) 63 77 90 131 106 98 107 105 Post-baccalaureate Certificate, Teaching* 3 2 9 15 75 71 117 Post-baccalaureate Certificate, Premedical 31 30 25 27 27 19 23 33 TOTAL 283 297 347 569 778 775 832 1001

* Numbers for 2001-03 include enrollments in both the Teacher's Institute (56 in 2002, 96 in 2003), and the Post-baccalaureate Professional Development program (15 in 2002, 21 in 2003).

New Graduate Enrollment Post-baccalaureate Premed Program

2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Applicants 121 138 137 179 Admits 40 42 43 59 Admit Rate 33% 30% 31% 32% Paid Deposits* 27 23 29 35 Yield 67.5% 54.7% 67.4% 59.3% Average College GPA 3.51 3.55 3.64 3.64 Average GRE 1,300 1,326 1,334 1,345

25 Distance-Learning Masters Arts Administration, Historic Preservation, Creative Nonfiction

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Applicants 71 65 80 93 87 95 Admits 53 46 53 56 64 63 Admit Rate 74.6% 70.8% 66.3% 60.2% 73.6% 66.3% Enrolled 46 28 46 50 42 53 Yield 86.8% 60.9% 86.8% 89.3% 65.6% 84.1%

Education M.Ed. and M.A.T.

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Applicants 145 196 246 175 222 217 Enrolled 50 45 30 34 57 74 (candidate) Enrolled 27 62 61 66 64 70 (provisional) Total Enrolled 77 107 91 100 121 144 Yield (degree 65% 42% 33% 34% 47% 51% candidate)

Geographical Distribution of Graduate Students

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 Maryland 66.6% 79.3% 84.4% 80.4% 80.0% 82.0% DC/DE/VA 3.7% 2.8% 1.8% 1.7% 2.3% 2.5% Other Mid- Atlantic 10.1% 4.9% 4.5% 4.4% 4.9% 4.1% New England 4.3% 2.1% 1.3% 1.2% 1.7% 1.6% South 4.6% 2.5% 2.4% 4.1% 3.2% 2.9% West 6.1% 3.2% 3.2% 5.0% 3.5% 3.2% Midwest 4.3% 3.9% 1.7% 2.7% 3.5% 2.4% U.S. Territories 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% International 0.3% 0.5% 0.4% 0.3% 0.5% 0.3% Unknown 0.0% 0.9% 0.3% 0.1% 0.4% 0.9% Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

26 J. Marketing and Student Recruitment

Goucher has an aggressive marketing program for attracting undergraduates. Our staff participates in recruitment programs run by high schools, junior colleges, colleges, and agencies for both first-year and transfer students. We also participate in regional and national college fairs, visits 450 high schools annually, and hosts student/parent receptions in metropolitan areas throughout the Northeast. Every year, more than 500 students attend open-house programs on campus, and more than 1,200 students participate in interviews and campus visits.

K. Student Life

One hallmark of the Goucher experience is that education occurs both inside and outside the classroom. Goucher students apply their talents and leadership skills working with student clubs and organizations, in student and campus governance organizations, on athletic teams, in internships and community service projects, and in performing arts productions. Members of the student life staff help them learn strategies for balancing academic and personal responsibilities.

Seventy percent of Goucher undergraduate students live on campus. As a residential liberal arts college, we consider this number to be too low. We are actively addressing the situation by constructing a new 185-bed residence hall that will receive its first students in August 2005. At present, there are five residence halls, and within those halls are three special-interest residential arrangements known as “houses.” Students can choose to live in a wellness house, in a quiet house, or in a recently created community-service house, or the traditional residence-hall setting, on a single-sex or coed floor. The college is committed to promoting a living/learning environment in the residence halls, and is striving to integrate a faculty and staff presence. Future housing will reflect aspects of the college’s Strategic Plan, with a greater emphasis on international and intercultural themes, as well as a house that focuses on ecological-sustainability issues, another important theme of Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind.

Special housing to support the transition of first-year students to the college environment is a new initiative that will begin in Fall 2004. As a test case, 40 first-year students will live on Goucher residence hall floors that are designated exclusively for their use. Our goal is to give faculty, staff, and peer support to new students, hoping that this innovation will promote a smoother transition to life at Goucher.

Career Planning and Placement Goucher’s Career Development Office is a comprehensive information and advising center for students exploring majors and career options, and seeking employment, internships, or information on further educational opportunities. Services include career advising and assessment, job listings, a career library, employer visits, career and job fairs, seminars and presentations, summer internship awards, and a computer laboratory. The office also coordinates the internship and student employment programs.

27 Athletics Goucher is proud of its athletic programs and the efforts of its director and coaches to ensure that our student athletes are as successful academically as they are athletically. Goucher’s athletes boast some of the highest GPAs achieved by students in the institution and are frequently involved in leadership and service roles in arenas outside of athletics.

Sixteen of Goucher's 17 intercollegiate athletic teams are NCAA Division III programs competing in the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC). Students involved in the other intercollegiate team, the equestrian program, compete in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). In 2003, they captured their first IHSA regional championship.

Since becoming a charter member of the CAC in 1991-92, Goucher has captured conference championships in volleyball (1993), field hockey (1994), men’s basketball (1994-95, 1997, 1999), and women’s lacrosse (1995-96). Individually, Goucher has produced a total of 28 conference champions in men’s cross country, women’s swimming, men’s swimming, women’s track and field, and men’s track and field.

Goucher has sent individual athletes and athletic teams to NCAA Division III Championships in men’s cross country, women’s swimming, and women’s track and field. Teams that have qualified to compete for national championships include field hockey (1994-95), men’s basketball (1995, 1997, 1999), women’s basketball (1996), and women’s lacrosse (1996). The most successful team was the 1996 women’s lacrosse team, which advanced as far as the Division III national semifinals.

In addition to the programs noted above, Goucher offers a wide and growing variety of intramural and club sports, including flag football, racquetball, volleyball, floor hockey, basketball, fencing, ultimate Frisbee, and indoor hockey.

L. Financial Matters

The balance sheet and statement of activities that follow illustrate the college’s assets, liabilities, and net assets, along with its operating results for the five most recent fiscal years. The information is drawn from Goucher’s audited financial statements for the respective periods. Goucher accounts for and reports its financial resources and expenditures in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for colleges and universities.

28

GOUCHER COLLEGE Balance Sheet Years ending June 30 (figures in thousands)

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Assets: Cash & cash equivalents 6,854 7,265 7,661 8,120 7,046 Accounts and loans receivable, net 4,170 4,667 3,684 3,486 3,351 Investments 143,646 149,975 154,401 135,029 128,575 Deposits with bond trustee - 10,690 - 3,784 2,336 Contributions receivable 2,307 1,494 678 466 313 Receivables under split interest agreements 8,413 16,073 9,226 7,675 7,877 Investment in plant assets, net 50,272 55,365 66,060 67,683 67,726 Other assets 414 692 1,011 730 636

Total assets 216,076 246,221 242,721 226,973 217,860 Liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 3,042 3,156 4,935 3,783 3,971 Deferred revenue and deposits 1,795 2,332 1,823 2,663 2,657 Payables and deferred revenues under split interest agreements 1,225 1,346 1,183 1,008 1,221 Long-term debt 21,807 36,866 35,887 44,865 43,500 Other long-term liabilities 556 418 256 1,610 4,700 Refundable advances from U.S. Government 2,052 2,032 2,048 2,047 2,088

Total liabilities 30,477 46,150 46,132 55,976 58,137 Net assets: Unrestricted 121,975 124,947 127,579 103,380 91,653 Temporarily Restricted 12,261 12,713 11,179 9,453 8,429 Permanently Restricted 51,363 62,411 57,831 58,164 59,641 Total net assets 185,599 200,071 196,589 170,997 159,723

Total liabilities and net assets 216,076 246,221 242,721 226,973 217,860

29

GOUCHER COLLEGE Statement of Activities Years ending June 30 (figures in thousands)

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Revenues, gains and support Tuition and fees 22,980 23,992 26,961 28,390 30,961 Institutional financial aid 10,535 10,778 12,213 12,694 13,916 Net tuition and fees 12,445 13,214 14,748 15,696 17,045

Government appropriations 1,910 2,170 2,645 3,269 2,915 Contributions 8,678 15,778 6,779 5,348 4,404 Investment income 4,290 4,847 3,603 3,691 3,439 Auxiliary enterprises 6,276 6,450 7,630 7,780 8,284 Other sources 751 1,074 1,302 1,027 1,168 Net realized and unrealized gains on investments 11,893 6,706 (16,449) (19,325) (2,021) Net assets released from restrictions - - - - - Total revenues, gains and support 46,243 50,239 20,258 17,486 35,234

Expenses Instruction and departmental research 14,690 16,743 18,164 19,272 20,305 General administration 5,851 6,813 7,596 7,478 8,264 Student services 3,686 3,921 4,092 4,214 4,457 Library 1,279 1,486 1,725 1,830 1,814 Auxiliary enterprises 6,387 6,804 7,971 8,412 8,505 Total expenses 31,893 35,767 39,548 41,206 43,345 Excess (Deficit) of revenues, gains and support over expenses 14,350 14,472 (19,290) (23,720) (8,111)

Other Cumulative effect of change in accounting for investments in limited partnerships (July 2000) 15,473 Cumulative effect of change in accounting for interest rate swap agreement (July 2000) 1,982 Unrealized loss in fair value of interest rate swap agreements (1,647) (1,872) (3,163)

Total other changes - - 15,808 (1,872) (3,163)

Increase (decrease) in net assets 14,350 14,472 (3,482) (25,592) (11,274)

Net assets at beginning of year 171,249 185,599 200,071 196,589 170,997 Net assets at end of year 185,599 200,071 196,589 170,997 159,723

30 M. Budgetary Procedures, Reporting, and Systems

The college’s annual budget is based on estimates of revenue from student tuition and fees, auxiliary enterprises, and other revenues, and on expenditure estimates of all departments. Using enrollment projections and predetermined financial goals agreed upon by the Board of Trustees, the president, in consultation with vice president for finance, proposes tuition, and fee rates and finalizes budgeted revenue levels. The budget is then submitted to the full Board for consideration and approval at its February meeting. A revised budget is approved by the trustees in October, when there is greater certainty concerning critical budget variables.

A computerized variance report detailing actual versus budgeted expenditures is distributed monthly to all department heads and their respective vice presidents. Financial management report summaries are also forwarded monthly to senior management and selected operating managers, highlighting the total college position on revenues and expenses, and the variances against budget. In order to ensure that each department adheres to its budget, the vice president for finance, supported by the controller, monitors departmental spending levels each month through these reports.

To assist in this activity, the college engages in continuous long-term financial planning, and utilizes multiyear financial modeling. Strategic initiatives, along with key operation and revenue assumptions, are defined to help the college determine and address potential problem areas. A five-year financial plan serves as a framework to develop initial assumptions for the following year’s budget.

N. Financial Aid

Through a comprehensive program of need-based and merit-based financial assistance, Goucher has been able to attract a talented and diverse student body from across the country and from all socio-economic strata. As a member of NCAA Division III, Goucher does not offer aid based solely on athletic ability. However, the college does recognize outstanding academic, artistic, and extracurricular achievements with various institutional merit scholarships. More importantly, it has sustained its commitment to helping as many students as possible meet the difference between their ability to pay for college and the total cost of a Goucher education.

In the current academic year, the college has spent approximately $12.8 million on financial aid for undergraduates. Goucher students receive financial aid in “packages” developed from a variety of combinations that may include merit- and need-based scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study opportunities from institutional, governmental, and other sources. In 2003-04, 91[b3] percent of Goucher undergraduates have received some form of financial assistance; 54 percent have received need-based assistance. Their average need-based gift award is $12,200, and their average financial aid package totals approximately $17,000.

In the last three years, the college has deliberately shifted a greater proportion of its total grant aid away from merit aid and toward meeting the demonstrated financial need of incoming students. For the Class of 2006, 64 percent of institutional grant funds awarded to incoming students went directly toward meeting their demonstrated financial need; the other 36 percent

31 was awarded in merit scholarships that exceeded the recipients’ demonstrated financial need. The following year, grant aid devoted to meeting demonstrated financial need increased to 68 percent. As of June 15, 2004, for the Class of 2008, such aid stands at 75 percent. We are succeeding in increasing the amount of aid awarded in order to meet the need.

The tables below represent institutionally funded aid programs, and total financial aid from all sources, respectively, from recent years.

Institutionally Funded Student Aid

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 Grants $3,783,039 $3,843,475 $3,743,912 $3,666,208 $4,010,803 Merit 6,300,207 7,110,449 7,747,269 6,500,993 7,809,871 Loan 67,939 71,155 26,506 14,350 22,500 Work 363,915 402,656 508,298 547,886 605,001 Total $10,515,100 $11,427,735 $12,025,985 $10,729,437 $12,448,175

Total Student Financial Aid (all sources)

1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 Grants and Scholarships From Goucher 10,083,246 10,953,924 11,491,181 10,167,201 11,820,674 From Other Sources 1,525,068 1,459,579 2,644,474 2,739,759 3,214,877

Total 11,608,314 12,413,503 14,135,655 12,906,960 15,035,551

Loans From Goucher 67,939 71,155 26,506 14,350 22,500 From Other Sources 5,444,055 5,878,589 5,675,416 6,859,134 8,159,103 Total 5,511,994 5,949,744 5,701,922 6,873,484 8,181,603

Work From Goucher 363,915 402,656 508,298 547,886 605,001 From Other Sources 181,210 148,216 152,551 101,000 115,524 Total 545,125 550,872 660,849 648,886 720,525

Total Financial Aid 17,665,433 18,914,119 20,498,426 20,429,330 23,937,679

O. Investments

Goucher’s endowment is an important part of the college's overall financial health. Earnings from the endowment provide approximately 16 percent of the college's annual operating budget for fiscal year 2004.

32 The endowment is composed of unitized, individually named funds that are invested collectively. Goucher College’s endowment spending policy is designed to provide support for current operations while securing the endowment’s future purchasing power. In order to achieve long- term financial equilibrium, the Board of Trustees has established an annual spending rate calculated as a percentage of the trailing 12-quarter average of each fund’s total market value. The rate used for 2004 was 5.9 percent, but the college has decided to save a larger percentage of funds for future use. The college expects to decrease the rate gradually to 5.0 percent over the next five years.

The Endowment/Investments Management Committee of the Board of Trustees takes an active role in managing the endowment, selecting fund managers and investment options intended to achieve long-term financial growth. The committee meets frequently to review the results of investments made by the fund managers and to make adjustments in the overall portfolio. As of December 31, 2003, approximately 69 percent of Goucher’s endowment was invested in stocks, 17 percent in fixed income vehicles, and the remaining 14 percent in real estate, commodities, and venture capital funds. Fund managers currently include State Street Global Advisors, T. Rowe Price, Commonfund, Morgan Stanley, Rothschild, TIFF, and Vanguard Capital.

Certain endowed funds may be restricted by donors for specific purposes. Neither the principal of nor the income from funds restricted to purposes other than general ones may be used to make debt payments in accordance with loan and trust agreements or to meet the claims of general creditors. However, board-designated unrestricted endowment may be used for general purposes, as the Board sees fit.

The market value of the portion of the college’s endowment that is categorized as board- designated unrestricted endowment is displayed in the tables below.

Endowment Investment Market Values Fiscal years ending June 30 (figures in thousands)

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Common Stocks 105,982 106,171 99,385 87,061 88,558 Fixed income Securities 29,083 31,173 35,250 33,234 27,793 Cash and Short-term Investments 2,373 2,232 541 66 16 Limited Partnership Interests 6,208 10,399 19,225 14,668 12,208 Total Investments 143,646 149,975 154,401 135,029 128,575

Market Value of Board-Designated Unrestricted Endowment Fiscal years ending June 30 (figures in thousands)

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Market Value of Investments 37,875 33,502 37,252 29,740 29,758

33

P. Fundraising Activity

Goucher College is in the preliminary stages of planning a comprehensive campaign with an estimated fundraising target in the range of $75 to $100 million. Primary goals will be the construction of the new Athenaeum, and the renovation of the Julia Rogers building to create additional classrooms and faculty offices. The campaign will also include support for faculty endowments, scholarships, curricular transformation, and annual operating funds. The specific financial objectives of the campaign should be finalized by the president and the Board by May 2005.

Overall responsibility for development and alumnae/i relations rests with the vice president for development and alumnae/i affairs, who is assisted by 23 staff members. Comprehensive fundraising programs include the planning phase of a capital campaign, major and planned gifts, annual giving, and support from the foundation and corporate community. Goucher lists more than 369 alumnae/i, parents, and friends as volunteer solicitors who also serve on various fundraising-related committees. Volunteers, including trustees, also aid in solicitations for leadership gifts.

In 1998, Goucher successfully completed the largest campaign in its 120-year history, exceeding its original $40 million goal by more than seven million dollars. The campaign was closed one year ahead of schedule.

Approximately 36 percent of the alumnae/i body donates money to the college annually. Goucher’s fundraising has remained consistent over the last 20 years, averaging $4 to $6 million per year in regular gift income, with periodic spikes due to unusually large estate gifts. Recent gift income has included $3.7 million in fiscal year 2002, and $4.1 million in fiscal year 2003. As of June 15, 2004, support given during fiscal year 2004 exceeds both previous years. The total stands at $5,359,268.

The table below represents total gifts and bequests, including gifts to the Annual Fund, raised over the last five fiscal years from alumnae/i, parents, friends, foundations, corporations, and other sources.

Total Gifts and Bequests Fiscal years ending June 30

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 $8,678,000 $15,778,000 $6,779,000 $5,348,000 $4,404,000

34 Q. Insurance

Goucher carries insurance policies that management believes to be consistent with industry standards for similarly sized institutions, including real and personal property, general comprehensive liability, workers’ compensation, employer’s liability, and automobile liability.

The major insurance policies carried by Goucher College include the following:

• All-risk coverage (on a blanket basis) in the amount of $84,000,000, with exceptions under a commercial business policy for real and personal property damage by fire, wind and hail, sprinkler leakage, vehicles, aircraft, explosion, lightning, riot, civil commotion, vandalism, or malicious mischief. • Comprehensive general liability insurance against negligence-based personal injury claims, $1,000,000 per occurrence as to persons and $3,000,000 aggregate as to property covered under the all-risk policy. In addition, the college carries an umbrella liability policy with a limit of $15,000,000 per occurrence for claims in excess of the underlying liability coverage. • Motor vehicle liability insurance covering all owned, non-owned, and hired vehicles have a combined single limit per accident of $1,000,000. In addition, as stated above, the college’s umbrella liability policy is in effect. • Educators’ legal liability and employee benefits liability policies covering losses arising from liability of trustees, officers, and employees due to their wrongful acts. The annual aggregate limit is $1,000,000 for employers’ benefits (ERISA) liability and $5,000,000 for educators’ legal liability. The educators’ legal liability deductible is $50,000 per wrongful employment practices claim and $50,000 for each additional claim. • Comprehensive crime insurance to pay for loss caused by dishonesty of employees with a $1,000,000 limit and theft coverage of $350,000 (loss inside) and $150,000 (loss outside).

R. Outstanding Indebtedness

Issue Balance at 6/30/03 Range of Rates Final (in thousands) Maturity MHHEFA Pooled Loan Program Revenue Bonds Series D Issue Date 7/15/95 $8,680 0.75-5.0% (avg 3.2%) 2017 Issue Date 9/2/97 $9,525 0.75-5.0% (avg 3.2%) 2019 Issue Date 9/23/99 $15,190 0.75-5.0% (avg 3.2%) 2021 Issue Date 10/1/01 $10,105 0.75-5.0% (avg 3.2%) 2024

Total Outstanding Indebtedness $43,500

35 Long-term debt at June 30, 2003 and 2002 consists of notes payable to Maryland Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority (MHHEFA). The notes are secured by a pledge of certain revenues of the College. Interest is payable monthly at a variable rate (0.95% at June 30, 2003). The notes are due in increasing semi-annual installments to January 2024. The College’s obligation to make the payments due on the notes is supported by an irrevocable letter of credit issued by a commercial bank.

The College has entered into an interest rate swap agreement with a national bank to manage its interest rate risk on the notes payable. The agreement extends through October 2019, and provides for the College to pay a fixed rate of 4.1% and receive a variable rate based on a notional amount equal to $36,500,000. The notional amount will decrease to $21,500,000 in February 2008, $14,500,000 in October 2018 and $8,500,000 in April 2019, to reflect principal reductions in the outstanding MHHEFA notes payable. At June 30, 2003, the fair value of the interest rate swap agreement was a liability of $4,700. At June 30, 2002, the fair value of the interest rate swap agreement was a liability of $1,537,000.

S. Retirement Plan Retirement benefits are provided for eligible faculty and administrative employees by a contributory purchase plan for annuity contracts with Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and/or College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF). The college’s contributions, based on employee compensation, were $1.3 million in the 2003 fiscal year, and $1.2 million in 2002. All participants have a fully vested interest in the contributions made by them or on their behalf, and the college has no obligations under the plan other than its annual contribution.

T. Institutional Research

The Office of Institutional Research provides the college with accurate, useful, and timely data and information needed to support decision-making. The office currently has employs a full- time director, a full-time research analyst, and a half-time research analyst. At the time of the 1998 Review, the office was staffed by one full-time professional and one full-time support services position.

The office creates a number of official reports for the college, including federal reports such as the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems survey, all Maryland Higher Education Commission surveys, the Maryland Independent Colleges and Universities reports, and the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium surveys. It also reports information to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for its annual profile data questions document.

In January 2002, the Office of Institutional Research produced the college’s first fact book. A copy of the Goucher College Fact Book is included in the PRR package. This book provides official data on enrollment, degrees, graduation and retention rates, faculty, staff, full-time equivalent students, and admissions trends, as well as national data on student enrollment by major and gender.

36 The office also produces the college’s Dashboard Indicator, a document that tracks the highest, lowest, and current values for a set of 30 indicators, with values for a six-year period of time. See Appendix VI, Goucher College Dashboard Indicators, May 2004.

The office conducts a number of annual surveys, including an alumnae and alumni profile for the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the National Survey of Student Engagement reports, and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program surveys.

37 II. Changes Since Last Report

Realizing the New Strategic Plan

Since our last review by the Commission, Goucher College has advanced a new strategic plan, Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind: A Bold New Vision for Goucher College. We have made considerable progress in implementing that plan, and in this section, we summarize our successes to date.

A. Development of the Academic Program: Curriculum

During the summer of 2002, within weeks of the plan’s unanimous approval by the Board of Trustees, the first group of faculty met to discuss the curricular transformation efforts called for in Transcending Boundaries. The group met for two weeks, drafting a rough outline for an exploratory process. That outline identified many of the issues that would be examined during the next few years as the college refined and then implemented the transformation.

Beginning in Fall 2002, and working through Spring 2003, the academic dean formed a more inclusive team that would be known formally as the Curricular Transformation Group (CTG). It included students, administrators, and student-life staff members, as well as faculty. Their charge was to identify the overarching principles for a revised curriculum. Several community meetings were held throughout the year to generate ideas and discussion about the curricular goals of the college.

The result was a document (See Appendix VII, Curricular Transformation Group II: Report and Recommendations, May 5, 2003 draft) that identified five major directions for change:

1. Expansion of the academic calendar to include a three-week January term and a three- week May-June term. 2. Development of a general education experience based on stated outcomes, proficiencies, skills, and key concepts. 3. Creation of a more flexible academic schedule and system, making it easier for students (and faculty) to explore a variety of course configurations. 4. Review of the first-year experience with an eye toward making it more efficient, more effective, and more satisfying to students. 5. Construction of assessment instruments for all elements of the curriculum, including the majors, the first-year experience, and the general education experience.

Later, a sixth goal was added.

6. Development of stronger links between the graduate programs and their counterparts at the undergraduate level.

38 During the 2003-04 academic year, a leaner CTG studied these directions in order to develop specific implementation plans. This group consisted solely of elected representatives from the faculty. Their efforts resulted in

• a plan for a four-term academic calendar; • a proposal for interdisciplinary cluster courses; • a proposal for an international portfolio program that will allow students from any discipline to understand their studies from a global perspective; and • a comprehensive first-year program proposal.

A faculty committee will continue to work during the summer of 2004 to refine the details of the International Portfolio Program. Another group of faculty, students, and student life staff will further develop the first-year experience.

One noteworthy early creation of the CTG process is a new program for first-year students: the January Re-orientation. Before the beginning of their second semester, we will bring a group of first-year students back to campus to participate in several activities. The purpose of these activities is to revisit some of the successes and mistakes of each individual over the first semester. It will also be a chance for the students, working with faculty advisors, student life professionals, and career development officers, to begin thinking about their future choices. Discussions about possible majors, careers, and international experiences will be included in the three- to four-day experience. The program will be run as a pilot in January 2005, and may become a mandatory program for all first-year students after that.

The CTG formed in Fall 2003 will remain in place through the 2004-05 academic year. On its agenda is the goal of developing a revised weekly academic schedule that will allow for greater flexibility for the kinds of courses Goucher intends to offer. The group has one other major charge: to schedule and implement a designated community time—a weekly or monthly event allowing the entire campus to gather to reflect on the broader issues of our new vision.

One issue that this group will soon address is that of the normal student course load. The group will examine the benefits of reducing the typical student course load from five courses per semester to four. The group will also look into the feasibility of requiring all students to participate in three-week intensive courses each year.

Most importantly, the group will focus on redefining the general education requirements. The intention is to articulate a viable, outcomes-based program that vertically complements the majors. That is, the general education requirements should appropriately serve the outcomes of the individual majors, and function as more than a program for students merely to “get through” in the first two years. Such a program would represent a general education experience that engages students for all four of their years at Goucher. Students would, of course, retain a great deal of flexibility to choose an appropriate path through the requirements.

The CTG will consider the role of proposals that have emerged from the faculty for new programs of study. The development this year of the Peace Studies major, the Africana Studies minor, and early plans for a European Studies major suggest that there is interest in developing a

39 single area studies [b4]program or an intercultural studies division. To answer the Strategic Plan’s new emphasis on environmental sustainability, the group also will begin to study the creation of an Environmental Studies program.

We also are aware of the necessity and desirability of articulating specific outcomes for all levels of the curriculum, and of developing assessment standards to measure their success. The development of specific outcomes will be considered during each department’s program review. One cycle of program reviews was completed in 2003, and we will begin the second cycle in Fall 2005, when the curriculum changes we are discussing have been approved.

We also need to develop the general education program from the consideration of specific outcomes. The CTG will study the idea of implementing an electronic portfolio program that can be used by all students to assess and reflect on their academic progress. Though such a program exists for our graduate programs in education, the conversation about how to use such a portfolio program to enhance our undergraduate students’ learning has just begun.

B. Faculty Development

Recognizing that increasing enrollments and ambitious curriculum efforts require a larger full- time faculty presence in the classroom, we have developed a plan for increasing the size of our faculty body during the next five years. Since the proposal has not yet been approved by the Board of Trustees, we here present an overview of our objectives.

First, we recommend the conversion of a number of half-time positions into full-time positions, where enrollments and program growth warrant those changes. Of particular interest is the discussion to create several full-time instructional staff positions in the academic writing program. These positions would replace the existing half- and part-time positions. Other departments that depend heavily on half-time faculty are those in the arts and modern languages—representation in the critical introductory-level courses is of particular concern.

In addition, we are in the process of identifying full-time, non-tenure-track faculty positions that should be converted to tenure-track positions. We believe that the creation of more tenure-track positions will strengthen the depth of our teaching.

Our proposal also calls for the creation of several new tenure-track positions in areas of critical need, which arise when there are high enrollments or new curricular initiatives.

One of the highlights of our proposal is the recommendation of the creation of rotating visiting scholar positions. The rotating scholars model will, conveniently enough, temporarily meet some of the critical needs noted above. More importantly, these scholars will bring a vital influx of outside perspectives, energy, and attention to the campus. It is hoped that these visiting professorships may often be filled by scholars from abroad—particularly scholars in fields consistent with our changing curricular goals. For example, as we develop our new environmental studies program, we might bring to campus a visiting scholar from abroad who is an expert in sustainable environmental practices.

40 Finally, the college is concerned with faculty teaching loads. One proposal suggests that reducing the average student course load will allow for the reduction of the typical full-time faculty teaching load.

C. A More Vibrant and Diverse Campus Community

At the beginning of the 2002-03 academic year, a subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Group was formed to study issues related to creating a more vibrant and diverse campus community, one of the comprehensive goals of Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind. This committee’s work resulted in a number of recommendations, summarized here. See Appendix VIII, 1/23/04 In Support of a Vibrant Intellectual Campus Community, September 12, 2003.

The report’s main recommendations are • improving the student life/residential experience; • increasing the size, diversity, and selectivity of the student body; • initiating programs that improve the support systems by which Goucher welcomes underrepresented students; • expanding interaction between students and alumnae/i; and • expanding the scope of collaborations with other Baltimore colleges.

Improving the Student Life/Residential Experience With the success of increased enrollments has come the challenge of providing campus housing. During the 2003-04 academic year, we housed 60 juniors and seniors in rental apartments across the street from the campus. In the upcoming academic year, that number is expected to double, pending construction of the new residence hall. Concerned that the students might feel a loss of affinity to the campus, we offered them a new concept: a community-service “house” within the apartments. Although this solution was created by necessity, the subcommittee has recommended that we develop this concept as a permanent improvement to the campus atmosphere. The introduction of living/learning communities in the apartments—perhaps even theme-based housing sections such as a writing house or an athletic house—are being explored.

On campus, the subcommittee advocates revitalizing the language floors, which have stagnated for a few years. The proposal includes hiring native-language instructors who would live in the houses, and planning appropriate events for language-floor students. This proposal is favorable to both the student life division and the academic division, and is in harmony with the international/intercultural focus of the new Strategic Plan.

Though all events are posted electronically on the campus website, the subcommittee recognizes a need for a centrally located electronic billboard to better publicize on-campus events. A likely site would be the Athenaeum.

The creation of more opportunities for faculty-student collaboration is a recommendation that draws on one of Goucher’s existing strengths. Students regularly work with faculty in the science labs, in the visual and performing arts studios, and in some of the humanities and social science courses. These faculty-student collaborations have resulted in co-authored papers,

41 conference presentations, concerts, and performances. We wish to encourage more such collaborations.

The final recommendation for improving the residential life experience is for students to work more closely with the Career Development Office. For decades, one of the defining characteristics of a Goucher education has been the required off-campus experience—the internship or study abroad. Our Career Development Office assists students in locating such opportunities. Career-development staff members also work with students on resumé-writing, interviewing, and presentation skills, and identifying majors and career paths.

Increasing the Size, Diversity, and Selectivity of the Student Body The college is addressing this recommendation in several ways. First, we seek to increase the size of the undergraduate population with specific targets: 1,400 students by the Fall 2005, and 1,500 by 2008. At the same time, we wish to improve the quality of students, as measured by incoming SAT scores, and reduce the reliance on merit-based tuition discounts to attract good students. Though all of these goals have the potential to undermine each other, we have already shown strong success in meeting them.

The following chart shows that our enrollments have increased well beyond the stated first-year targets, while the tuition discount rate has gone down, and the average SAT scores have improved.

Class Year 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05* First-year Enrollment 341 366 342 (398) Average SAT Score 1187 1175 1209 (1991) First-year Discount Rate 49.6% 46.1% 41.6% (37.8%) Retention Rate 79.5% 80.3% NA NA * 2004-05 numbers as of 6/15/04

Retention of first-year students remains a problem. Our retention rate has been hovering around 80% for several years. Our associate academic dean and associate dean of students are working collaboratively to reverse this trend by improving our faculty advisors’ training, maintaining better tracking of “at-risk” students, providing first-year students with better and more frequent academic progress feedback, and improving the overall quality of the first-year experience. In Fall 2004, the college will introduce a new position: the first-year mentor, whose job will be to monitor and support first-year students, especially those who may be academically or socially disengaged. We also are increasing the number of resident assistants in the residence halls, as well as the number of counselors on our health services staff.

Improving the Support Systems for Welcoming Underrepresented Students Our efforts in this regard require the combined forces of enrollment management, student life, and the academic division. The college has a standing committee on diversity that is charged with making further recommendations for these efforts.

Though our most recent statistics show an increase in the number of minority students enrolling at Goucher, we are disappointed that the number of African American students is likely to decrease in the first-year class entering in Fall 2004. Clearly, we need to design better strategies

42 to attract and retain a diversified student body. Roberto Noya, vice president for enrollment management, has recently unveiled a proposal for a minority recruitment plan. The primary goal of the plan is to reverse the declining enrollment of African American students, while building on this year’s success of increasing Asian American and Latino enrollments.

We must also expand our efforts to increase the diversity of our faculty and staff. Clearly, much progress has been made, as noted earlier, but we remain committed to further improvements. Training of all our faculty and staff to be better able to identify the issues and needs of diverse students is a priority. Two workshops on diversity issues sponsored by the Jessie Ball duPont Foundation during the summers of 1998 and 1999 were of great value, and we wish to revive this workshop program.

The Curricular Transformation Group is studying expanded opportunities in the curriculum for students to explore global contexts and multiple perspectives. Faculty members have also developed several new program proposals representative of the institution’s support of a curriculum giving voice to multicultural perspectives. Most notable of those proposals is the introduction of the Africana Studies minor.

Expanding Interaction between Students and Alumnae/i The subcommittee is the development of professional networking opportunities between our alumnae/i and our students. Although a networking program has been in place for several years, it needs to be re-energized. The student life division and Alumnae/i Association will work collaboratively on this issue.

Expanding the Scope of Collaborations with Other Baltimore Colleges Finally, the subcommittee recommends expanding our collaborations with area colleges and universities. This promises not only to afford our students more numerous and diverse academic opportunities, but also to expose them to greater diversity here on campus.

D. Facilities

As we have noted, the cornerstone of our Strategic Plan is the construction of an Athenaeum that will serve as the intellectual, social, technological, and cultural center of the Goucher community. Housing an expanded library, dining facilities, performance and lecture halls, group study space, and other common areas, the Athenaeum will be the most prominent and important manifestation of our ideal of the liberal arts.

The current library was state-of-the-art when it opened in 1952. It, too, was intended to be the center of the college, and was built on the highest point of the campus site. The 52-year-old building cannot sustain the needs of a contemporary library, however, neither in terms of holding an expanding collection, nor in terms of supporting the growing technology demands of the college. The new Athenaeum will house our collections and serve as a center for fostering information literacy. It will also be a place for meetings between faculty, staff, and students.

43 As the library moves to become the anchor of this new facility, we will be able to renovate the existing Julia Rogers building to provide space for our growing academic departments, improved faculty offices, and innovative classroom spaces that also bear the imprint of our new educational vision, both in their design and in their implementation of the full range of current instructional technology.

We also note a growing interest on our campus in the development of laboratories for social science work and humanities research. Unlike the familiar science laboratories, these “dry labs” will be comfortable interviewing rooms and computer labs for the special needs of social science and humanities research. These, too, will be housed in the renovated Julia Rogers building.

The Strategic Plan asks us to re-establish a Goucher presence in downtown Baltimore, the place where the college originated before moving to the suburbs in the 1950s. This city presence would be a boon for service learning, community service, and community arts programming. It also would lend itself to use by our historical preservation programs. Coincidentally, the neighborhood where the original Goucher campus stood has recently renamed itself Old Goucher. We have begun to develop programs and collaborations with the old neighborhood. For example, all of the service learning programs in 2004-05 will be related to that district in the city. We seek to lease a space in the Old Goucher neighborhood, and hope that, in time, part of our old campus will become available to us for purchase.

In addition to these academic facilities needs, it is clear we will have to focus on student life facilities. Our ambitious plan to expand the student body requires a new residence hall. In August 2004, we will begin construction that hall, and we expect the first students to occupy it in August 2005. The hall will add at least 185 beds to our current capacity, and it will offer students more variety in their choices of living arrangements. The new facility will be designed as suites and apartments to accommodate students who are ready for a more independent residential experience.

The final planned facility change on campus is the least glamorous, but no less important. During the summer of 2004, a section of Campus Loop Road (Goucher’s beltway) will be moved to create space for the new residence hall and Athenaeum. The road’s relocation requires us to eliminate a student parking lot, but we will build two new, smaller lots at the north and south ends of campus (with a net increase in spaces overall). This will help remove motor traffic from the center of the campus to the periphery. These moves will make pedestrian traffic safer and more pleasant, while still maintaining ample parking—even for first-year students.

44 III. Responses to the Self-Study and Evaluation Reports

In Part III, we present a review of our progress to date. Text from the Commission’s Evaluation Report is presented in bold italics, and is followed by our response.

A. Faculty Work and Scholarship

The Strategic Plan calls for formalizing a system of peer review for supplementing the course evaluations for assessing teaching. Creating a climate where peer review is accepted and managed, while minimizing the potential negative effects, such as adversely affecting the classroom environment and diminishing departmental collegiality, is the next stage of the process.

We are happy to report that the system described above has been implemented. All senior faculty members are expected to sit in on junior faculty members’ classes, and then provide useful suggestions and advice to the junior faculty member.

The Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee has instituted guidelines for evaluating teaching excellence for tenure and promotion candidates. Faculty members being reviewed for tenure or promotion who wish to emphasize teaching (versus scholarship) as their area of excellence, must create a teaching portfolio. The portfolio must include a statement of teaching philosophy, copies of course syllabi, student course evaluations, and teaching evaluation letters from the department. These teaching portfolios then are sent to outside peer reviewers, much the same way that scholarship is reviewed. The committee and the academic dean also evaluate the portfolios.

The Honors Program offers a splendid opportunity to enhance the intellectual vitality of the curriculum and to attract the able cohort of students that Goucher seeks, yet it seems to lack sufficient visibility and leadership. Furthermore, the Program is not publicized as much as it might be in college publications.

As part of the college’s curricular transformation efforts, the Honors Program is due for re- evaluation in the 2004-05 academic year. Discussion about the effectiveness of the current program did occur during the 2003-04 academic year as part of the faculty study concerning the first-year experience. Further discussion will continue during the coming academic year, 2004- 05, as part of the general education study.

Four questions frame our discussions of the future of Goucher’s Honors Program:

1. What goals and outcomes do we desire in an Honors Program? 2. Are these goals and outcomes different from those now in place? 3. Do we consider the design of the current program to be effective? 4. Is it important for Goucher to have an Honors Program?

45 An analysis of the current program reveals that few students remain in the program for all four years. We note with concern that only a handful of students request information about the program from the Admissions Office, and we speculate that, as the quality of students who apply to and are accepted by the college continues to improve, a separate program to attract good students may no longer be necessary. We will also look into what our cohort institutions are doing with their Honors programs.

Our discussions during the 2003-04 academic year yielded four possible changes to the program. First, a new Honors Program may be designed to appeal to students in their first two years. Honors would cease to be a four-year commitment. Second, Honors Program resources might be reallocated to support the creation of Honors course sequences in individual majors. Third, the resources might be reallocated to another initiative, such as the International Portfolio Program, or the Cluster Course program. Fourth, the resources may be reallocated to create more team- taught courses throughout the curriculum. We believe that one of the strongest components of the current program has been the team-taught, interdisciplinary course, and we wish to preserve this element.

The faculty will continue to discuss these ideas in the coming academic year. We note that the faculty has determined that no new students will be accepted into the Honors Program until a statement of goals for the program is approved by the faculty. We also will develop and approve a statement outlining the role Honors Program plays in the context of other pending curricular changes. The Curricular Transformation Group will be responsible for generating a viable proposal for the Honors Program.

Curriculum

1. Faculty should consider reducing the number of concentrations and academic programs.

Between 1999 and 2001, several departments did reduce the number of specific concentrations within majors. In 1998-99, for example, the department of theatre had six different concentrations within the theatre major. Currently, students may complete the major without concentrations, or elect to combine theatre with a concentration in arts administration. Similar reductions were effected in most departments. The Curriculum Committee continues to discourage the development of new concentrations within majors.

No reductions in the number of academic programs occurred until this year, 2003-04. Specifically, the International and Intercultural Studies major will be dismantled after its last enrolled students have graduated. In its place, an International Portfolio Program will be developed. As the major is dismantled, several of its concentrations will be eliminated. We target those concentrations that have had few or no students enrolled in them during all the years of the major’s existence. The more successful concentrations will revert to their original departments. We note that several of the concentrations of the International and Intercultural Studies major are duplicated in other areas of the curriculum, and we have now eliminated those duplications.

46 As part of the curricular transformation efforts, we will be studying the structure of the entire Interdisciplinary Studies division. The division is home to several stand-alone minors and programs, and some of these programs, such as the concentration in Russian studies, have had few or no students enrolled in them. We will consider elimination of these under-enrolled programs.

2. New courses should normally entail course reductions elsewhere in the program.

We recognize that it is the practice at Goucher that when a new course is introduced, the Curriculum Committee is to ask whether any courses in a program are to be eliminated. In recent years, however, we have not been consistent in enforcing this practice.

3. The college should explore ways to consolidate faculty [committees] and consider shortening the maximum length of service from the current five years.

The faculty has looked at ways to consolidate committees and streamline the faculty governance system. One recent proposal suggested the creation of a faculty senate, which would reduce the number of faculty members and committees directly involved in the governance system. The system would rely more heavily on representation, and less on all-faculty participation. However, the faculty did not approve the proposal, electing instead to continue the current “town hall” system. Two years after the proposal was rejected, however, dissatisfaction with the current system has raised the question of re-examining the senate model. See Appendix IX, Faculty Senate Model.

One component of the current governance system that is clearly not effective is the academic division system (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, the Arts, and Interdisciplinary Studies). Most of the academic divisions have stopped functioning as units. Most have not met as a division in the past year. One division does not even have even a nominal leader. There is sentiment that some form of divisional system with elected representation could have an effective role in governance, but no plan has yet emerged. It is a tentative agenda item for the coming academic year.

In response to the Commission’s report, faculty committee terms were shortened in 2000, from five years to three. It is not clear, however, that this has been a beneficial change. The frequent turnover in committee membership has disrupted continuity between one year and the next. This has been further complicated by having to replace members on leave. Sometimes, the replacements serve as briefly as a single semester. An effort has been made to maintain continuity by creating a guidebook for all committees. We hope that, when completed, the document will establish criteria for standard practices and decision-making.

Another difficulty we face is that there are simply not enough full-time, tenure-track faculty members to adequately share the responsibility for governance. Changing committee membership more frequently has exaggerated the difficulty of finding appropriate senior representatives from each of the divisions for each committee.

47

4. The college should explore ways to ensure the centrality of the liberal arts to the overall mission of the institution.

One result of our strategic planning process is the development of an expanded definition of the college as a liberal arts institution, which includes a commitment to liberal education in a global context. Our plan states that:

With this strategic plan, Goucher College introduces a new vision for liberal arts education, with the expansion of international and intercultural literacy, global citizenship, and ecological sustainability as its highest ideals. Efforts to attain this ideal will be the lifeblood that invigorates and sustains our intellectual community.

Through these efforts, we will engage in heightened, intensified discourse in all areas of study, encouraging thought and imagination that transcends the boundaries not only between disciplines, but also among individuals, cultures, and nations worldwide.

5. The college should provide for increasing demands for faculty support.

The College provides support for faculty development in several ways. There is a fund of $13,000 available to the Faculty Affairs Committee annually to support faculty travel to conferences and other scholarly work. Full-time faculty members are eligible to apply for a maximum of $1,500, while half-time faculty members are eligible to apply for a maximum of $750.

In addition, five $3,000 and five $5,000 grants are available annually to support faculty work during the summer. These competitive grants are awarded by the Faculty Affairs Committee to individuals based on the merits of their applications.

Faculty awards available through other development programs are as follows:

• The Curriculum Committee awards a number of grants in the $1,000-to-2,000 range to support the development of new courses and new pedagogy. • Funding is available to support the development of new strategic initiatives. Each year, an external funding source provides money to support the development of new, three- week intensive courses abroad. • Several grants of up to $5,000 from the newly created Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology encourage faculty to incorporate technology into their courses. • Gifts to the college have established a program that offers $6,500 to support new curricularinitiatives in service learning. • Finally, $6,000 is available each year to faculty for participation in a Grants Mentoring Program. This program teaches faculty how to identify likely sources of funding, and how to write successful proposals. We plan to expand the program to staff during the 2004-05 academic year.

48 B. The Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies

Overview Through the Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies, the college offers the M.Ed. and M.A.T. in education, the master of arts in arts administration and historic preservation, and the M.F.A. in creative nonfiction. In addition, there are five noncredit certificate programs, a post-baccalaureate pre-med program (known as Post-Bac), and a curriculum for non-traditional undergraduates.

The programs in education have been recognized for their excellence by the Maryland State Department of Education. Our post-baccalaureate pre-med program is recognized as one of the top three such programs in the country, according to the medical schools that recommend the program to potential students. Graduates of the program have achieved a remarkable record of 100-percent admission into medical school during the last three years. Currently, this is the best medical school acceptance rate in the country.

We have three successful distance-learning, masters degree programs. Each requires a two-week summer residency. They are the master of arts in arts administration, the master of arts in historic preservation, and the master of fine arts in creative nonfiction. These degree programs have parallel majors or programs in the undergraduate curriculum and are designed to be consistent with our mission. The five certificate programs are offered in historic preservation, fundraising management, marketing communications, meeting planning, and nonprofit management.

Goucher II, a support program for adults 24 years of age and above who wish to begin or complete their undergraduate education, is also housed in the graduate division. Goucher II students attend the same classes, receive the same personal attention from the faculty, and graduate with the same liberal arts education as traditional-age students. Special programs include writing workshops, career counseling, peer support, and social events specifically tailored to the older student.

Goucher II students add diversity to the community through their varied backgrounds, experience, and talents. Many Goucher II students actively participate in campus activities and contribute substantially to academic life at Goucher. The majority of Goucher II students enter as transfer students. Sixty percent of were full-time in 2003-04.

Responses The Commission’s response to our 1998 study discussed a number of issues related to the graduate programs. One major recommendation was the creation of a half-time position for an associate dean of graduate studies. The college administration created that position in 2000, but we soon discovered that the workload demanded that the position be full-time. This change was approved, and in 2002, the graduate division received its first full-time dean at the associate level.

Other recommendations noted in the 1998 review have been addressed as follows.

49 There is little contact between the full time faculty and the graduate programs.

We are addressing this issue. The undergraduate department of education and the graduate programs in education have worked collaboratively on certification issues of the Maryland State Department of Education. Most significantly, the two programs have created two new dual- degree opportunities: a 4+1 B.A./M.A.T. and a 4+1 B.A./M.Ed. (See Appendix X, Bachelor of Arts with a Master of Arts in Teaching (BA/MAT) Proposed for Those Wishing an Alternative Route to Secondary Certification in Five Years, February 9, 2004.)

We have found it more challenging to forge links between students in our graduate-level distance-learning programs (which are asynchronous) and those in our residential undergraduate programs. We can, however, note several successful ventures.

For example, the three distance-learning master’s programs have begun to collaborate with their correlate undergraduate programs. The director of the M.F.A. program in creative nonfiction has had discussions with the undergraduate instructor of creative nonfiction, and has participated in a number of undergraduate classes. In return, the undergraduate creative writing instructor now sits on the program’s advisory committee. Bridging the undergraduate/graduate gap has been the central topic of this year’s meetings. One result has been the creation of a program that will encourage graduate creative nonfiction students to act as mentors to our undergraduate writers.

The director of the M.A. program in arts administration and the instructor of undergraduate courses in the same field also have been discussing new collaborations. In this subject area, however, the partnership must address the challenge of combining a rather formal, graduate- degree program with the flexibility of the undergraduate concentration. Likewise, the directors of the undergraduate and graduate programs in historic preservation have been collaborating in the area of grant writing.

We note that classes offered through the Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program are taught by full-time undergraduate faculty and instructors retired from that faculty. On another front, undergraduate faculty have asked that courses in our professional certificate programs be made available to undergraduate students, a request that promises even more interaction between graduate programs and full-time faculty.

There is limited oversight by faculty of the graduate curriculum.

Since the last report, one additional undergraduate faculty member has been added to the Graduate Studies Committee, bringing the total to three. Since 1998, this committee has overseen the reviews of two programs at the master’s level (historic preservation and creative nonfiction), and one certificate program (educational technology leadership). During the 2004-05 academic year, the committee will be evaluating the program review documents for the master of arts in arts administration. New course proposals, new initiatives, and proposed changes in existing courses and programs must now be approved by the Graduate Studies Committee.

50 Small number of students in some of the programs will make future profitability difficult.

While small, niche-based graduate degree programs are vulnerable to slight changes in economic and demographic shifts, we have been quick to react to external forces. The Post-Bac program, for example, saw its numbers decline for two consecutive years. Therefore, in 2003-04, we enlarged the class from 26 to 35. One consequence of this decision is that the program will realize strong profits by the close of the fiscal year ending in June 2004. The M.F.A. in creative nonfiction is enjoying an increasingly strong national reputation. Classes in this program fill quickly, as do the classes of the M.A. in historic preservation program.

The health of the M.A. program in arts administration is a concern. As the economy has weakened, so have the fortunes of the arts in general, and of arts administrators in particular. One phenomenon to contend with is the great wave of retirements nationally among an entire generation of gifted, veteran arts administrators. As these seasoned arts administrators retire, their positions are being eliminated. The confluence of a slower economy and a rapid attrition of jobs has also created something of a brain drain in the field, a circumstance that is temporary, but painful nonetheless. In this country, we are simply losing top-quality teachers and advisors. Nonetheless, since Goucher offers the only limited-residency distance-learning M.A. in arts administration in the United States, more students should be enrolled in the degree program. In 2004-05, we plan to market the program much more aggressively.

M.A.T. and M.Ed. faculty have little contact with undergraduate education faculty.

This situation has improved since the time of the Commission’s report. In addition to the discussion above, we note that the evaluation process that education programs undergo through the Maryland State Department of Education demands full cooperation between the undergraduate and graduate programs. Moreover, undergraduate faculty members participate on the Graduate Program Improvement Team, and are invited to all graduate faculty meetings.

There should be a single administrative structure for graduate and post-bac programs.

In Fall 2001, a faculty member from the undergraduate program was given a half-time appointment as associate dean for graduate and professional studies. Since Fall 2002, that position has been full time. The associate dean oversees all programs in graduate and professional studies.

With the goal of increased collaboration, we have also made progress in reducing competition between programs. The operation of all programs has been improved, moreover, by the authority of a single budget officer. The move to a new campus data system will present additional opportunities to streamline operations, cross-train, and share responsibilities. Further advances are expected when the graduate programs’ physical space is consolidated in one area, making it easier for the division’s members to interact on a daily basis. This will occur when the current library building is renovated, that is, after construction of the Athenaeum.

51 Consider appointing a half-time Associate Dean from the faculty.

In fact, in Spring 2001, Goucher created a full-time associate dean for the graduate programs, named from the ranks of the undergraduate faculty.

Strengthen faculty governance role in the graduate curriculum.

The Graduate Studies Committee is the graduate-level equivalent of the undergraduate Academic Policies Committee and the Curriculum Committee. This important group considers all changes in policy and curriculum and, like the Curriculum Committee for the undergraduate programs, brings its recommendations to the faculty as a whole when it receives proposals for new programs. At the time of the last evaluation visit in 1998, undergraduate faculty membership on the Graduate Studies Committee had been reduced from four to two by a vote of the faculty. Shortly thereafter, the undergraduate faculty members voted to increase their representation from two to three.

Acknowledging the importance of the Graduate Studies Committee, the chair of the undergraduate faculty has invited one of its representatives to sit at the weekly meetings of the Faculty Executive Council, a group led by the chair of the faculty and comprised of representatives of the major standing committees of the faculty. Although graduate participation on Executive Council is not required by faculty legislation, we intend to formalize this participation. While the observations of the Middle States evaluation team refer to issues of governance over which the undergraduate faculty rightfully should have a say, it fails to cite the need for a balance that can occur only with the recognition of the equal legitimacy and importance of the graduate programs, faculty, directors, and staff. Joint participation on the Graduate Studies Committee is one way to address this recognition.

Develop a faculty handbook for adjunct faculty.

All programs of the Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies have developed faculty handbooks. The Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program employs full-time or retired full-time undergraduate faculty members, and these members adhere to the policies of the undergraduate faculty handbook.

Carefully monitor and evaluate the use of adjunct faculty.

Adjunct faculty are hired and managed by the graduate program directors. The directors must review adjunct faculty syllabi as well as students’ end-of-semester evaluations of each adjunct teacher.

52 Develop criteria for monitoring the financial performance of the programs with criteria for discontinuing programs that do not meet revenue or enrollment expectations.

With the duties of the Welch Center accounts manager expanded to include overseeing all programs in graduate and professional studies, careful study of monthly budget lines is now coupled with comparisons of previous years’ budgetary performance. Enrollment trends are monitored, and tuition comparisons are made with our competitors to help inform pricing decisions. Although we have not developed a list of criteria for discontinuing programs, it is unlikely that decisions to end programs will be made on the basis of revenue or enrollment statistics alone. Each program’s contribution to the prestige of the institution, its relationship to the undergraduate programs, and its support of the other graduate and professional programs, will also be taken into consideration. Since the 1998 visit, however, we have begun to monitor indices that allow us more clearly to identify the progress our graduate programs.

We note one additional improvement made in Spring 2004. We have hired a new staff member, on a one-year experimental basis, to work on enhancing enrollments in the certificate programs.

C. Computing and Technology

Overview Through collaborative planning efforts that encourage involvement, feedback, and suggestions from the campus community, technology has advanced greatly at Goucher College since the time of the 1998 Self-Study. The division of information technology has embraced a team approach towards the development and support of technology services. Planning and development efforts have improved the reliability of technology services, and the division has heightened its efforts to provide quality customer service.

President Ungar recognizes the critical relationship between information technology resources and the quality of a Goucher education. At the president’s direction, the college created the position of chief technology officer, a position that was filled in the spring of 2002. The chief technology officer reports to the president and serves as a member of the senior staff and the College Council.

The information technology (IT) division has four units, detailed as follows:

• Administrative Computing is responsible for administrative UNIX server support, business technology consulting, information systems support, information systems security support, and portal support. • Computing Services is responsible for classroom, office, and lab desktop support, classroom technology support, computer hardware and software purchasing support, • help desk support, science instrumentation support, and Windows and academic UNIX server support. • The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology supports the active-learning zone (a space dedicated for teacher and student training, and for experimental pedagogy), the advanced technology and media center, all classroom technology planning, faculty

53 instructional, technology consulting, online learning support, and the Thormann Center computer lab facility. • The Networking and Telecommunication Services unit is responsible for supporting all cabling and wiring, the Internet and network infrastructure, network security, remote access services, telephone, and video and cable television infrastructures.

Planning Goucher has developed a technology plan that focuses on future steps for student, faculty/staff, instructional, and business technology services. The division also has developed a five-year plan for technology services in the classroom. Other reports developed by the division concern residential computing support, a possible laptop initiative, campus and building network infrastructure, and computer servers and computing systems. The division’s website (http://www.goucher.edu/it) shares information on this technology plan, as well as technological services and support.

The college is implementing new, integrated software package for admissions, student records, billing and cash receipts, human resources, finance, and development and alumnae/i affairs. Known as SCT PowerCAMPUS, this package will improve all academic planning and decision making, business operations, data access and service. This unified system, chosen after a yearlong evaluative process involving faculty, staff, senior staff, and students, will also make it easier for academic and administrative departments to share information.

Technology is a committee effort at Goucher College. Several groups meet regularly to collaborate and to develop decisions. They include the information technology advisory group, the center for teaching advisory group, and the SCT PowerCAMPUS core team. This latter group is directing our campus-wide conversion to a new information system.

Supporting Teaching and Learning Instructional technology services are integrated through the Blackboard Online Learning Environment, the Julia Rogers Library online catalog of holdings, databases, and journals, and 21 technology-enhanced classrooms. The college uses the HorizonLive software platform for live, web-based teaching, learning, and interactive communication.

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology is a recent innovation. The center, housed in the library, is a gathering point for collaboration and discussion of issues dealing with today’s teaching challenges. The center has resources to encourage exploration of new ideas and new technologies, with staff professionals who provide models of innovation, collaboration, and creative solutions to learning needs.

One of the center’s initiatives is the awarding of Technology Fellow grants to faculty and staff for innovative technology enhancements to courses. Each year, two of the grants are reserved for academic departments that are in the process of revising the computer proficiency requirement of their majors.

A classroom technology-planning team, responsible for developing standards, policies, procedures, documentation, and training for classroom technology equipment has been

54 established. Its members include faculty and staff from across the campus, and its charge is to enhance the use of this technology to support teaching and learning.

There are other committee groups created by the division that study and support teaching and learning. For example, an electronic portfolio task force explores electronic portfolio software options for the college.

In 2002, the college completed a review of academic offerings that fulfill the computer proficiency requirement. In 2004, an information literacy task force was formed. It includes representatives from all academic divisions, as well as other key campus administrators. Its roles are • to work with the curricular transformation group to explore opportunities for curricular connections within majors and general education; • to reexamine the current computer proficiency requirement; • to develop a plan to promote the importance of information literacy concepts among the faculty; and • to recommend a mechanism for support of collaborative curriculum projects that will use the expertise of faculty, librarians and instructional technologists.

Business Operations The division has enhanced the college’s business operations. We have implemented a new system, called CampusWEB, which gives faculty, students, and staff access to undergraduate and graduate catalogs, course availability, schedule of classes, academic progress reports, final grades, unofficial transcripts, financial aid statements, and student account balances. CampusWEB can be seen from any computer at any site. In addition, faculty have the capability to create academic progress reports and to view relevant information on their advisees.

The implementation of SCT PowerCAMPUS will improve all academic planning and decision- making, business operations, data access, and service. The college will implement SCT PowerCAMPUS Student Information System, IQ.Web, and the Microsoft Great Plains Finance and Human Resources suite. This software will be integrated with Goucher’s existing PowerFAIDS Financial Aid system.

Campus Infrastructure All campus buildings and residential halls are connected to a fiber-optic, gigabit network infrastructure. All computer workstations in classrooms, labs, and offices are connected to the campus network. Each residential hall room provides students with access to the campus network, the Internet, telephone services, and voice mail. Individual and common rooms are equipped with cable television access. The campus has implemented an indoor and outdoor wireless network infrastructure in academic buildings, public spaces, and outdoor locations to provide access to the campus network and the Internet in order to enhance teaching, learning, and business operations.

The college owns and operates a telephone system that provides local, long distance, and voice mail services. This telephone system has been improved to provide more port capacity and to use digital trunking. We have increased our connection capability to the Internet, and we now

55 maintain a fiber-optic link to the Internet service provider that gives us flexibility in increasing bandwidth. PacketShaper software controls the amount of bandwidth that can be used by any specific application. For stability and flexibility, our cable television plant has been upgraded from a satellite-based system to a fiber-backbone system.

Since 1998, we have increased the total number of network outlets on campus by 25 percent. We have made a substantial investment in network infrastructure fiber optic and equipment upgrades, resulting in improved speed, performance, redundancy, and reliability. Network architecture improvements (e.g., virtual local area network or VLAN technology, access control lists, centralized authentication) improve security, reduce network congestion, and improve network performance. Hardware upgrades have been implemented for campus servers and systems. Alarms on campus servers, network equipment, and telephone systems now notify technology personnel of problems immediately. Monitoring of the Internet connection and telephone system is performed by outside vendors on a 24/7 basis. Hardware maintenance contracts with four-hour turnaround on critical components and similar hardware are standard.

The college continues to upgrade its e-mail system. We have purchased and implemented anti- SPAM software for all incoming e-mail. The license permits its use on all college-owned computers, and for personal computers owned by students, faculty, and staff. The college has implemented a network-based services system that allows us to transmit system and software upgrades through the campus network.

Student Computing Through high-speed Internet access, dial-up modems, virtual private networks, and laptop wireless networks, Goucher students enjoy e-mail accounts, generous network storage space, personal web pages, file and document backups, and discussion groups. All students are given Microsoft Office Professional and McAfee Anti-Virus software, technology orientation sessions, and technical assistance in connecting their computers to the campus network.

A student technology handbook has been written to address some of the more common questions students have regarding technology. The handbook has an overview of computing technology services and computing facilities, and information about where to find help and assistance. The handbook also contains information about telephones, voice mail, data networking, and cable television services provided to students.

Technical and Customer Support Goucher’s assistance services for technology are extensive, and they demonstrate the college’s commitment to the practical, positive integration of technology into higher education. The help desk is staffed with technology professionals who have received hardware, software, and customer-service training and certification. Instructors can contact the desk for immediate support with classroom technology issues. Technology professionals also are on-call to help with after-hours problems. Student assistants work in Thormann Center labs, the advanced technology and media center, and the Help Desk @ Night (an after-hours support line). Technology skill-development and software training is offered to students, faculty, and staff through workshops or in-class instruction. Technology experts are always available to assist

56 with presentation development, digital media conversions, website development, setting up voice mail, and innumerable other daily technology issues and tasks.

Responses

Develop a strategic plan for technology with a time frame and budget for updating hardware and a policy statement about software upgrades.

After campus input and discussion, the college developed a strategic information technology plan to outline strategic objectives and initiatives. The plan states that

[the] college will continue to upgrade, maintain, and replace computer hardware (computer workstations, classroom technology, audio/visual equipment, network infrastructure, telecommunication infrastructure, and computer servers) and software on a regular planned timetable so that the college’s technology services will be reliable and will provide state of the art capabilities and features.

The plan states that by July of each year, the college will perform a review of the funding and priorities for technology replacements and upgrades. The college strives to maintain a three-to- four year replacement cycle for all campus computer workstations. However, budget cutbacks have delayed the replacement cycle for office workstations and have limited the college’s ability to maintain and replace classroom technology.

The strategic information technology plan also states the following comprehensive goal:

The college will maintain campus-wide standards for computing hardware, classroom audio/visual technology, software, and services to facilitate collaboration, to maintain state-of-the-art computer technology, to simplify upgrades, and to simplify support and training.

The college utilizes a standard software configuration for each office, lab, and classroom computer workstation. Software upgrades are installed and tested for all computer labs and classrooms prior to each semester. These upgrades are made based on requests submitted by faculty to the information technology division. Upgrades to common software (e.g., Microsoft Office Professional) are made simultaneously to insure consistency for all campus workstations. The college also provides all students with Microsoft Office to enhance collaboration and document exchange.

Assess computer literacy to determine if there is consistency across majors, determine if students are being taught to be life-long learners in an age of rapidly changing technology, and determine if computer literacy “transcends specific disciplines and careers.”

In 2002, the college completed a review of the computer proficiency requirements for all majors, and we are concerned that the implementation of the requirement is not consistent throughout the academic divisions. The definition and implementation of a college-wide, computer proficiency requirement is being examined by the curricular transformation group. The IT division is

57 supporting these efforts. In Spring 2004, an information literacy task force was formed to recommend the next steps for the college to take; this summer, the division will award two grants to encourage departments to revise their computer proficiency requirements.

D. Library

Overview The college places a high value on the books and materials that comprise its library. Since the early days at the city campus, our impressive collections have provided vital energy that sustains all our intellectual pursuits. Under the skillful guidance of presidents and trustees, the library has had many homes, in many places.

The three-story Julia Rogers Library that opened in 1952 was designed to hold 100,000 volumes and serve a student population of 700. More space became necessary, however, as student enrollments and collections grew. In 1966, the trustees authorized the construction of an addition to the library, and, in 1969, the college dedicated the Robertson wing. This has been the only expansion to the 52-year-old facility.

Several distinctive special collections are housed in the library. The Burke Jane Austen Collection, received in 1976, is considered the largest grouping of author Jane Austen’s memorabilia in the United States. We hold English and American first editions of Austen’s novels, as well as nearly 200 editions of her novels in numerous languages, including Hebrew, Russian, and Japanese. Other Goucher collections of note include the Corrin and Winslow Collections of Political Memorabilia, the Sara Haardt Mencken Manuscript Collection, and the Passano Collection on Women in the South during the Civil War. Although we have published portions of these collections through electronic means, the complete texts cannot be used by our students, faculty, or visiting scholars. The volumes and manuscripts are stored in “the archives,” a cramped space with no environmental controls located on the lowest level of the building.

In 1952, a library meant rows of books and folios. A small area might have been dedicated to audiotape reels. Certainly, few at that time foresaw the need for satellite dishes, computers, and Internet and wireless connections. Using relatively small spaces, however, Goucher has been able to provide library users with 41 computer workstations, 3 printers, 27 study tables, 58 individual study carrels, and 4 group-study areas.

The library currently houses 300,000 volumes in a space meant to hold 225,000. Collectively, the library had 189,310 users during the 2002-03 academic year. As our student population grows to 1,400 and beyond, we can expect this count to rise.

General Conditions The 1998 Middle States team expressed concern about the crowded conditions of the Julia Rogers Library. At that time, the college was beginning discussions about expanding the library spaces. The team had two recommendations for the library, one concerning aspects of the planning for the space expansion, and the other, regular assessment of community needs for library services and information literacy training.

58 Plans for the Julia Rogers Library project should include adequate space for the current collection plus a reasonable projection for future is needed acquisitions and technology including media playback equipment, as well as adequate staff and student work space. Plans should extend the library’s life a minimum of 20 years.

In 1999, we began discussions of renovation project for our library building. As we came to understand the full extent of the library’s needs, it soon grew into a “renovation plus addition” project. We then realized that our designs were becoming extremely expensive, without effectively addressing problems that might occur twenty years from now.

The college has now instead embraced the construction of the Athenaeum. As we have noted, the Athenaeum will be the heart of our campus, and it will include our new library. We now have the opportunity to reinvent Goucher’s expectations for library services.

There should be regular assessment of the needs of the Goucher community for traditional library services and information literacy training.

Faculty, staff, and student focus groups have had many discussions concerning the needs of a state-of-the-art college library as we plan for the new Athenaeum. A formal assessment of our needs, though, has been delayed.

[b5]We are in the process of formally assessing the library’s instructional program. We began with a very useful survey in the spring of 2003, which was repeated again in 2004.

Begin promptly the process of hiring a systems librarian. Continue the information literacy program and, with the addition of a systems librarian, expand the program.

As recommended, we have added such a librarian to the professional staff, thanks to the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. The 1999 addition of an information technology librarian has had beneficial effects throughout the library, allowing us to centralize technology tasks that had been distributed somewhat randomly among the staff. Our users seeking technology help can now visit a central location where they are assured of receiving quality instruction.

The library staff has continued to expand the information literacy program, now called Research Instruction. Further, as we have hired new librarians, we have insisted that all successful candidates have a strong background in technology research. All of our librarians participate in Research Instruction.

Continue the Liaison Program to cement Library/Faculty relations.

The faculty/library liaison program has grown since 1998. It is now a critical tool for communication with the faculty. We have further addressed faculty-to-librarian relations by holding open houses that include faculty development opportunities.

In February 2004, the faculty member serving as coordinator of faculty development, the academic dean, and the college librarian attended a three-day workshop sponsored by the

59 Council of Independent Colleges. Transformation of the College Library was a most positive experience. We plan to use the information gleaned at this workshop as a model to create new, and better, collaborative faculty/library activities.

With guidance from the dean, our faculty members, librarians, and instructional technologists have embarked upon a campus-wide information literacy initiative. We are adhering to the definitions and guidelines presented in the Commission’s Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education. The college has hired information literacy expert Tom Kirk of Earlham College to work with a task force as we develop an information literacy plan.

Explore the establishment of a Faculty Library Committee.

We have not aggressively pursued the creation of a Faculty Library Committee. Faculty workload is an issue of much discussion at Goucher College, and we fear that the creation of a Faculty Library Committee would be perceived as one more burden. The Committee remains in our plans, waiting for the opportune moment.

Determine the benefits of using electronic resources rather than CD-ROM products for accessing materials from remote locations. Explore the acquisition of additional electronic resources.

The library staff was pleased with the suggestion that we reduce our use of CD-ROM products in favor of other electronic formats. At the time of the writing of this report, we have nearly eliminated that format.

During the past five years, we have expanded our overall electronic resources collection. In 1998, the college supported three web-based full-text subscription databases and approximately half a dozen CD-ROMs that provided citation-only indexing for periodicals. In Spring 2004, the college supports 86 web-based products that give access to full-text materials in all disciplines. In addition, the college has negotiated direct web access to an additional 308 journal titles from eighty-six separate publishers or vendors.

The growth in electronic resources requires different means of providing professional support to student and faculty users. The librarian has responded by revising the duties of the collection management librarian. New duties in the position description now account for 50 percent of the collection management librarian’s time and work. The librarian must:

• analyze licensing agreements and negotiate contracts with vendors of electronic and print materials; • convene the electronic resources selection committee, prepare background materials, and arrange trial subscriptions; • register for online access with vendors and publishers and resolve all access problems; • coordinate the linkage of articles across databases (in conjunction with vendors), and maintain accuracy of serial finding aids (“print and electronic journals list”); and • monitor the budget, analyze the overall use of resources, and recommend renewal or cancellation of specific resources.

60 Bring new building seating area size up to the recommended 25 to 35 square feet per user. In the present facility this would seriously diminish the present seating capacity, which presently barely meets the established standards.

This suggestion is taken into consideration in our planning for the new library. After much consideration, we have reconfigured our present building, creating more commodious workspaces. Although this has reduced the total number of spaces available, we feel that the advantages in comfort and attractiveness are substantial.

We recognize that the current building remains cramped and crowded. We have been able to gain small amounts of space through a de-accessioning initiative that is an important step in preparation for the move to the Athenaeum.

E. Student Services

1. Student life division must begin planning for outcomes assessment. In considering both cognitive and affective development, as student affairs professionals must, neither an exclusively quantitative approach nor an exclusively qualitative approach is recommended. A three-dimensional result will be best achieved by a combination of approaches.

The student life division has expanded its assessment of work. In addition to specific quantitative and qualitative measures used by student life staff, Goucher participates in two external programs that provide broad feedback about the experiences of freshmen and seniors: the Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey (known as CIRP), an annual report that gives normative information on each year’s entering students; and the National Survey of Student Engagement (known as NSSE), a survey that gathers information on our students’ attitudes and activities. The college also conducts an exit interview program, known as the senior interview project. The CIRP and NSSE data are quantitative, and the senior interview project supplies both quantitative and qualitative data about the student’s learning experiences throughout his/her time at the college. Copies of the CIRP and NSSE data have been included in the PRR package.

The assessment activities conducted by the staff of the student life division follow.

Student Activities Much of what students are involved in focuses on helping them to acquire leadership skills, organizational skills, communication skills, and team-building skills. Assessment involves tracking the organizations they become involved in, as well as the leadership roles they assume. Several of the leadership programs administer assessment tools that are both quantitative and qualitative in nature about their learning experiences.

Orientation/Connections Course The learning outcomes for this program and course focus on students acquiring the skills necessary to be successful in college. They include, but are not limited to: how to study; how to manage time effectively; how to become familiar with the college’s resources; how to learn about the greater Baltimore community; how to have a working knowledge of the purpose of a liberal arts education; how to understand issues of diversity; and

61 how to be connected to the college, and to each other. Both qualitative and quantitative assessment measures are used.

Athletics Clearly, the academic achievement of athletes is an important indicator of one learning outcome, and each year, the athletic director collects and analyzes data that reflect academic records of each student in each sport. The learning outcomes for students participating in the athletics program also focus on time-management skills, leadership skills, and team- building skills and, therefore, student-athletes are asked to respond to several assessment instruments throughout the year. The information they supply is shared with the coaches, helping them to understand better their role in the students’ lives. For example, students complete a questionnaire at the end of each year responding to questions about their relationships with the coaches as well as questions about how they have used academic support services during the year. In their senior year, students complete a comprehensive survey. It asks students to reflect on how well their expectations have been met by the coaches and the athletic program. It also asks them to describe the impact the program has had on their overall growth as a student.

Career Development Office The learning outcomes for career development include helping students to learn more about themselves, and how certain vocations and careers are consistent with their interests and values. Another goal is to help the student acquire very practical information about internships, careers, and graduate study. Quantitative data are collected annually that assess the reasons students visit the Career Development Office, and the percent of seniors who take advantage of its programs and services for senior students. The office also works cooperatively with the Office of Institutional Research to track data that indicate the number of students who begin work upon graduating, and the number that enter graduate school upon graduating.

Chaplaincy The learning outcomes for students participating in religious and spiritual life programs on campus focus on fostering religious and spiritual exploration as an important component of an excellent liberal arts education. Both the CIRP and the NSSE surveys have questions that assess some aspects related to students’ spiritual experiences. In addition, the chaplain has created an instrument that helps students to focus on the courses, persons, and environments that may help them understand their spirituality. Further, she is able to assess the number of students attending programs. In the 2004-05 academic year, the chaplain plans to develop an assessment instrument that will ask students to reflect on the degree to which certain programs have had an impact on their spiritual growth, and the extent of their ability to appreciate and to respect different religious/spiritual traditions.

Community Service One of the major learning outcomes in community service is that students will enhance their ability to demonstrate empathy, a quality that is somewhat intangible, and therefore, is difficult to assess. Community service programs assist students with practical experiences that inform the roles that many of them will eventually pursue. In addition to quantitative data on the number of students participating in community service, all students participating in a service program are asked to complete a questionnaire that asks them to reflect on what they have learned about themselves, and the world, because of their service.

62 Health and Counseling Staff in the college’s Health and Counseling Center focus on helping students become educated about their bodies. The goal is to prevent as many health problems as possible. Currently, data are collected about the use of the center for health services, and for counseling services. The data does not focus, however, on learning outcomes. A project planned for the 2004-05 academic year will be the creation of an assessment instrument that allows staff to determine which behaviors and strategies students are using as a result of their interactions with the health and counseling center that allow them to pursue and maintain healthy life styles.

Residence Life The learning outcomes desired by the residence life staff are those that help students make the transition to college life. Information is collected that tracks the number of students attending programs, as well as the number of students who violate college policies (rules and regulations). Students are asked to complete a questionnaire that responds to the effectiveness of their relationships with resident assistants. In the 2004-05 academic year, the residence life staff plans to design an assessment instrument that will ask students to reflect on how the living/learning environment in the residence halls has influenced their ability to be responsible members of the community.

2. Transitions and Frontiers appear to be yet another result of the College trying to “do it all” instead of making choices. In this case, the students pay the price of having to take two courses, one credit bearing and one noncredit, instead of one.

The Transitions course referred to in the 1998 Middle States response has been changed. It is now called the Connections program, and has undergone several conceptual changes. For one thing, students now receive one credit for their participation in the program. The Frontiers program continues, and has grown in popularity as well as effectiveness.

Both the Frontiers course and the Connections program are under review as we reassess the whole first-year experience. Though we know there are improvements to be made—and work is in progress to better integrate all aspects of the first-year experience—we believe that it is important to keep both programs going as separate entities. The focus and content of each is distinctly important, and students benefit by participating in both.

Frontiers is a set of seminars that all first-year students take during the fall semester. The seminars are structured to introduce new college students to the basic tools of a liberal arts education: critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing. Mastery of these skills enables one to understand and to participate in our complex 21st-century world. Frontiers topics span the range of inquiry, from race and ethnicity in America to the philosophy of science. (See Appendix XI, Fall 2003, Frontiers Course Description. The seminars emphasize collaborative learning and model active membership in an academic environment characterized by independent thought, tolerance, and intellectual curiosity.

The Frontiers course has enjoyed increasing success during the past five years, as measured by student and faculty satisfaction with it. For a three-year period, the program experimented with offering Frontiers courses in both the fall and spring semesters to accommodate both student and

63 faculty schedules. In Fall 2003, however, the program returned to fall course offerings only. Twenty-two sections were scheduled; 27 sections will be provided in the fall of 2004.

The Connections program helps new students to draw associations between what goes on inside the classroom and their experiences in life outside of class. The name of the program was changed from Transitions to Connections to reflect a change in its mission. Transitions was originally intended to help students make the personal transition from high school to college life. The focus of the new program is to help students make stronger connections to Goucher College, socially as well as academically. It addresses issues of personal development and individual growth more clearly than did the old program. In addition, the new program makes a conscious attempt to strengthen the relationship between campus life and academic experiences. The new framework has included both faculty and academic staff participating in program facilitation, with an effort to include more academic content in the section meetings. With these changes, the faculty agreed to grant one academic credit for student participation in the program.

3. Counseling Efforts. The counseling effort is still thin for the number of students served and the increasing severity of problems on campuses today.

Nationally, the number of students who arrive at college with emotional and mental health problems is on the rise. After a review of Fall 2003 data reflecting student visits to the counseling center, the dean of students reported a record level of first-year students seeking psychological counseling. Fall 2003 data from the CIRP survey indicate that greater numbers of first-year students at Goucher have experienced being overwhelmed and depressed than students at other highly selective, private liberal arts institutions.

Goucher’s response is to expand the counseling services provided to all students. The college will increase the number of services dramatically, beginning in Fall 2004. The staff will be enlarged by one full-time counselor position. There also will be the addition of a half-time position, which will allow us to add regular evening and weekend hours to the center. The number of available hours will be reviewed after we test several configurations during the fall of 2004. The center should grow from 80 to a total of 130 staff hours, plus 16 intern hours per week.

4. Student Life Policies. Some student life policies and procedures seem cumbersome, resulting in student frustration and staff overload. Streamlining would be well advised.

Since 1998, student services have become more efficient. In 2001, Goucher implemented OneCard, an electronic system that is a major improvement over the old key system. This system provides students with a plastic card similar to a credit card that permits access into residence halls. It also is an identification card, and can be used to purchase items at the bookstore, meals in the dining halls, snacks from vending machines, and the use of laundry machines.

Another positive shift for students is the way a room is now reserved for an activity. This, too, is now an electronic, online system that makes it very simple for students to identify and reserve spaces for all types of campus programs and activities. This new process has eliminated an

64 obstacle that might have prevented students from being involved in clubs and organizations on campus.

5. Faculty and student life professionals should coordinate their efforts to develop one course for freshmen. Negotiation over course content would be guided by the desired outcomes.

The student life and academic divisions have succeeded in creating a single first-year course that is meant to serve the goals of both divisions. Further development of other first-year programs, however, has been a challenge. We find that there is some disagreement between divisions about desired outcomes.

The academic division believes the first-year program should prepare students for the academic experience of college life, including learning to write well, to think critically, and to become an academically responsible member of the community. As noted earlier, during the past five years, the academic first-year seminar course, Frontiers, has become very popular among the students and the faculty.

From the perspective of those involved with the student life division, Connections should help first-year students make the transition to the co-curricular aspects of college life, including how to live in a residential college community, how to travel in Baltimore City, and how to manage time effectively. There has been an attempt on the part of the student life staff to integrate more writing and traditional “academic” elements into the program, as well as to attract stronger commitment from faculty members, whose participation has slowly eroded over time.

One reason for the decreased faculty participation is that the college’s growing enrollment has made it necessary to offer more 100-level courses, and this has meant that fewer faculty members are available to participate in Connections. We admit that faculty members remain suspicious of the course’s content. As of May 2004, no faculty member has agreed to serve as the co-director. The faculty curriculum committee has now called for a re-examination of the one academic credit for the program.

Nevertheless, the college is committed to improving the Connections program because it is an important way to address specific developmental issues for our students. This year, the Curricular Transformation Group developed a proposal for improving the first-year experience, including ways of redirecting the Connections course content into forms of delivery that would not require offering a separate course. In addition, the academic dean and the dean of students will co-sponsor a workshop during the 2004 summer to address a number of first-year program issues. The issues that will be examined include:

1. Should the program award academic credit? 2. What is the appropriate level of faculty/academic staff participation in the program? 3. Should the program be presented as a student life project with a nod to academic content, or should the program be an academic course that discusses student life issues? 4. If the academic content is removed from the program, where will it be covered and who will cover it?

65 5. Could/should the topics covered in the program be better presented during orientation and/or a January reorientation program?

The expected result of this work and that of the Curricular Transformation Group’s examination of the first-year experience is a more viable integration of its elements—moving some pieces of the current Connections program into the fall orientation and January re-orientation, for example—and the achievement of a degree of faculty participation that makes sense in light of institutional needs.

6. Early warning/intervention and Retention. A high percentage of students who leave do so involuntarily due to academic suspension. A study of this group would reveal whether they are simply not capable (an admissions issue) or if they have not achieved up to potential. In the latter case, it could be helpful to develop an early warning/intervention system. (Also) a more complete look at those who leave voluntarily could also indicate some directions for further, focused retention efforts.

Students can receive help in their coursework through our academic resource centers: the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) and the Writing Center. The services available through ACE can help students develop the study and learning skills necessary for college course-level success. Services include individual assistance offered by peer mentors, supplemental instruction led by student leaders, math labs, language labs, and study skills workshops. The Center also implements the academic adjustments for those students who submit documentation of a disability.

At the Writing Center, specially trained students are available to assist writers at all stages of the composing process, in any course. This center is supervised by a member of the English Department.

Goucher does, in fact, study and assess both students who leave voluntarily, and those who leave involuntarily (due to suspension or probation). The studies we have completed indicate that some students who leave Goucher did not use many—or any—of the support services we offer. We monitor student performance from the beginning of a semester, and we know if a student is responding to our efforts to help him/her succeed. Reports on students who leave, or are at risk of leaving, come from several sources.

First-Year Watch List The admissions office creates a first-year watch list for students it believes might be at risk of leaving, noting academic, behavioral, emotional, physical, social, or other difficulties. The list is circulated to the staff of enrollment management, the dean of students, the disabilities specialist, and the associate dean for the undergraduate program. As of 2003, it is the responsibility of the associate dean of students to assign staff and faculty members to monitor the students’ progress. When academic difficulties occur, these faculty and staff members serve as secondary advisors and mentors to the students, ensuring that they are aware of all the available support services.

Academic Progress Reports The academic performance report (APR) is a written communication between the instructor and the student about how the student is doing in the

66 course, above and beyond the results of graded work. The reports are one more way we can try to identify students’ difficulties early in the semester. The reports are required for all students performing below a satisfactory level by the mid-point of the semester; required for all first-year students by the sixth week of the semester, regardless of the grade in the course; and recommended any time there is a concern about the student, academically or otherwise. Copies are automatically sent to the student, the director of the Academic Center for Excellence, the associate dean for the undergraduate program, and the student’s advisor. The student may be prompted by the APR to meet with the professor, to attend supplemental instruction sessions, and/or to obtain a tutor. The director of the Academic Center for Excellence contacts every student for whom a negative report has been issued. Parents of first-year students receiving negative reports are contacted as well. The associate academic dean meets with students who have received multiple negative performance reports, and discusses their overall academic standing, potential consequences, and options. The advisor is prompted to meet with the student if one or more courses should be dropped for the semester. Especially for first-year students, these reports are necessary mechanisms that encourage discussion between advisor and student on overall adjustment to college life.

Exit Interviews Of the 73 first-year students from Fall 2002 who chose to leave Goucher, 70 percent did not complete a voluntary exit interview. Since 2002, we have created a profile for each student who does give an exit interview, and have made the information readily available to faculty and administrators. In the absence of data from an interview, we rely upon information gleaned from records kept in multiple offices, and from interviews with faculty and staff, to determine why a student leaves the college. The Office of Institutional Research also produces a yearly report that tracks the transfer institution of every student who leaves Goucher.

A student placed on academic suspension is encouraged to appeal the decision. This is especially true for first-year students. The appeal process allows the college and the student to re-examine the causes of the student’s difficulties, and to consider strategies that will correct the situation. Of the suspension cases that were appealed by the students in Fall 2003, 80 percent were approved, and the students were able to stay on full-time.

At-risk students are encouraged to take advantage of many services available to help them, including our Academic Center for Excellence and our disabilities specialist. We have had four part-time therapists and a part-time psychiatrist on staff. As noted earlier, beginning in Fall 2004, the college will add a full-time counselor. In addition, a first-year mentor will be hired, reporting to both the associate dean for the undergraduate program and to the associate dean of students. The first-year mentor will be able to give at-risk students individualized attention for both academic and personal issues.

We are making slow but steady progress on the problem of student retention, but do not yet feel that we fully understand the problem; the retention rate is inconsistent with the kind of liberal arts college Goucher is becoming. The Fall 2003 report prepared by the vice president for enrollment management and the director of institutional research for the Enrollment Management Committee is provided as Appendix XII.

67 7. Easier Registration Process. Registration for new students appears to be problematic; many schools have moved to make it simpler and to make it sooner.

Since the 1998 report to the Commission, the process of registering students for classes has become more efficient. This is especially true for first-year student registration. One significant improvement is the increased time allotted for summer registration days. By increasing that registration period from two to three days, students have more time to meet with advisors, and more time to adjust their schedules. Registration information is now available through the Internet. Although hard copies of the catalog continue to be available for those who are not comfortable using an electronic version, the Internet version allows both students and advisors to monitor course availability and registrations in real time.

Another improvement that has reduced student dissatisfaction considerably is the way we now determine how many sections we need to offer in each course. The associate academic dean for the undergraduate program and the academic dean have developed a process that allows the college to estimate the number of 100-level courses that will be needed to accommodate each incoming, first-year class.

Placement exams for math, English composition, French, and German are now all online. The Spanish placement exam will be available online by 2005. This also greatly improves the efficiency of the registration process.

The college is implementing SCT PowerCAMPUS, a new, integrated software package for admissions, student records, billing and cash receipts, human resources, finance, and advancement. Once implemented, the software will enable students to register for any class using the Internet.

F. Coeducation

The college should remain true to its commitment to equity for all students as it develops programs that may attract larger numbers of male applicants.

Goucher College has made steady progress in achieving greater gender balance since the 1986 decision to become a coeducational institution. In fact, the number of male applicants has increased each year, as has the number of male students enrolled in the undergraduate program. The chart below illustrates our progress.

68 Undergraduate Headcount Enrollment by Gender Fall 1991-2003

1000

900

800

700

600

500 eadcount

H 400

300

200 Male 100 Female 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003* Fall

Goucher College has consistently increased male enrollments for more than a decade. The strength of the academic and co-curricular programs appears to be very attractive to all applicants, both male and female.

The Fall 2003 first-year class was 39.5 percent male, and while we know that the ratio may not be that high every year, we are confident that the number of male students will continue to be strong.

G. Outcomes Assessment

The recommendations of the Middle States Commission’s 1998 report called for the implementation of an outcomes assessment plan. In 2000, the college submitted a 22-point follow-up report detailing the assessment measures undertaken at that point.

As noted in the Introduction, Goucher College has undergone significant changes in a very short time period. While the excitement generated by the first implementations of our Strategic Plan is palpable, the college did experience a 12- to 18-month period when our community was more concerned with identifying and embracing change than with implementing it. Such periods of adaptation to change are normal and healthy, but when they occur, we must alter our timeline for progress in some areas. This has been true of assessment measures.

As of June 2004, we report that some of the 22 points of the 2000 assessment plan we submitted remain active, some points are in the process of being implemented, and some points still are being reviewed for action.

69

We assure the Commission that we are aware of the importance of outcomes assessment, and we understand the benefits a coordinated plan can have to our institutional health. The Curricular Transformation Group released a report in May 2003 that outlines five areas for curricular revisions. (See Part II, Section A for a complete description). The fifth point is an affirmation that outcomes assessment measures must be established, and appropriate instruments must be created for every academic program on campus. See Appendix XIII, Curricular Transformation Group III Cluster Course Proposal, September 29, 2003.

In addition, in March 2004, the senior staff endorsed the creation of an Assessment Oversight Committee. Its charge is to create, implement, and oversee the assessment efforts of the college. The committee members will be named during the summer of 2004, with comprehensive representation of the college community, including undergraduate and graduate faculty, staff, and students.

Finally, we have successfully implemented specific assessment measures in our undergraduate and graduate education programs, including an electronic portfolio for students in the graduate programs. These assessment programs can serve as models for all departments and programs on campus. We simply need to concentrate our efforts to begin to genuinely build an assessment plan that includes all the academic departments and programs, the general education experience, and the first-year program. In the academic division each curricular program undergoes regular self-study and outside peer review on a five-year cycle. As we begin our next round of academic program reviews, assessment will be in the foreground of each departmental self-study.

The report by the Commissioners in 1998 asked us to evaluate both knowledge and process… Evaluate patterns of student achievement and the expected patterns and practices of achievement the institution has articulated for its students.

Indeed, one of the most important aspects of our curricular transformation effort is the articulation of “expected patterns and practices” for our students. Individual departments have begun to articulate outcomes within their own programs. Our plan is to have the assessment discussions be part of the larger effort to make the general education experience and the majors more complementary. Once we have more thoroughly articulated our goals within departments, we can expand our efforts.

Concerning other assessment measurements, we can report that we continue to gather CIRP data, (included in the PRR package), and we continue to use data from the Admitted Student Questionnaire. As noted earlier, we participate in NSSE. Results for the past five years are to be found in Appendix XIV.

2000 Follow-up Report In 2000, the college submitted a report to the Commission in response to 22 recommendations that were made in 1998. The following is a summary of actions taken since the 2000 follow-up report. We present the Commission’s comments in bold italics.

70 1. Centralize the role of data collection, analysis and dissemination within the Office of Institutional Research and determine its reporting structure.

2000 response: Completed. Effective Fall 1999, the director reports to the President. Current status: Since 1999, the Office of Institutional Research reports to the vice president for enrollment management. The Office is not limited to conducting research on enrollment trends, however for it now provides services to all the divisions on campus. The office has been expanded to 2.5 full-time employees. One significant function of the Office is providing assistance to academic departments conducting their self-studies. The Office provides valuable information about enrollment trends within the individual departments.

2. Address the question of an oversight committee for the outcomes assessment effort at Goucher College.

2000 response: Completed. Effective Fall 2000, both the faculty’s Academic Policies Committee and the President’s Council serve as oversight committees. Current status: The President’s Council has been disbanded and replaced by the College Council, a group that has a wider representation. It is not the oversight committee for assessment. As noted above, in March 2004, the senior staff agreed to form an Assessment Oversight Committee of faculty, staff, and students to begin designing, implementing, and overseeing all assessment efforts of the college. This group will be formed during the summer of 2004.

3. Publish an annual report on outcomes assessment efforts.

2000 response: Will be implemented as soon as we have replaced our director of institutional research who left at the end August 2000. Current status: While a new director was hired in June 2001, an annual report on outcomes assessment has not been part of her responsibilities. This may become a function of the Assessment Oversight Committee.

4. Increase Office of Institutional Research staffing to meet increased needs and expectations in that area.

2000 response: Completed. At the time of the self-evaluation and external review, the research office consisted of one exempt staff, whose duties included institutional research, and one half-time support staff. As of Fall 1999, the staffing was increased to two full-time exempt staff and one half-time support staff whose duties are exclusively institutional research.

71 Current status: The office now has 2.5 positions: a full-time director, a full-time research analyst, and a part-time research analyst.

5. Administer surveys in a standardized way to allow comparisons with other schools and with prior administrations at Goucher; alternate student surveys between national surveys and Goucher’s own instruments.

2000 response: Implemented during the 1999-2000 academic year. Current status: We continue to administer surveys as described above.

6. Prioritize, utilize and disseminate more effectively the data that is gathered.

2000 response: Being implemented. Current status: No change since 2000 response.

7. Periodically review all outcomes assessment tools to ascertain whether they meet current objectives and make changes as needed.

2000 response: Ongoing. Current status: To date, we have not reviewed the assessment instruments in light of the new strategic plan. We anticipate that this will be part of the early work of the Assessment Oversight Committee. In particular, we will establish objectives and assessments for our study abroad and international emphases.

8. Require departments undergoing review to work with the Career Development Office to contact graduates in their majors.

2000 response: Not yet implemented. Current status: We intend to add this as a requirement to the new guidelines for program review, beginning in 2005-06.

9. Require departments as part of their self-studies to report on progress in relation to the strategic plan and require them to develop new goals for each five-year increment.

2000 response: Implemented, Spring 1999. Current status: In the coming academic year, we will revise the guidelines for academic department and program reviews to include assessment in relation to the Strategic Plan. New guidelines were established early in 2002-03, but the plan that had been approved at that time did not contain the detail of the current version (Transcending Boundaries). The last departmental reviews under the old guidelines were completed in 2002-03. Further reviews are pending until 2005-06 to accommodate implementation of the Strategic Plan and its anticipated curricular transformation.

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10. Consider expanding reviews to include administrative divisions.

2000 response: Implemented. Current status: In September 2001, Grenzebach Glier & Associates Inc. conducted a fundraising review, the Campaign Readiness Assessment of Goucher College. Most of that report focused on the organizational structure and effectiveness of what was then called the Advancement Division. In March 2002, the division received a new name that better reflects its functions: the Division of Development and Alumnae/i Affairs.

The newly formed Informational Technology Division has collected information from the Student Action Committee. No other reviews have been conducted.

11. Adopt the Biology and Education departments’ models of using test scores as outcomes assessment and program review tools.

2000 response: Postponed. Current status: We have not adopted these models. We continue to assess their effectiveness as we proceed with curricular transformation and assessment efforts.

12. Change the wording of the Career Development Office’s internship evaluation form to elicit more detailed qualitative answers; require students to submit the surveys and distribute results to student advisors.

2000 response: Revision completed and administered to the Class of 2000. Current status: No change from 2000 response.

13. Look at best practices at other institutions and change our internship evaluation process in ways that truly inform us about what students value or dislike about their internship experience.

2000 response: Completed. Current status: No change from 2000 response.

14. Increase poster sessions participation and hold a common session for all divisions.

2000 response: Postponed. Current status: We have not considered this recommendation.

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15. Assess more vigorously the effectiveness of the advising system, using detailed surveys, e.g. independent evaluation of pre-major and major advising and type of advisor, longitudinal studies, and comparison with other similar institutions on measures such as the National Students Satisfaction Survey.

2000 response: Postponed. Current status: The advising tasks fall to the associate academic dean for the undergraduate program. We note that there has been rapid turnover in this office during the past five years. The current dean is the third person to hold the position since 2001.

The associate dean is eager to evaluate the advising process, and has implemented a program to improve the training of all advisors. She also began an effective training session for faculty advisors in May 2004. We are considering ways to distribute the information from that training session to faculty members who were not able to attend.

We plan to assess the effectiveness of the system more vigorously beginning next year.

16. Assign responsibility to the associate academic dean to follow up on recommendations from academic external reviews.

2000 response: Reassigned to the academic dean and the special assistant to the dean. Current status: This continues to be the responsibility of the academic dean’s office, though the position of special assistant to the dean has been discontinued. We will consider sharing this function between the associate academic dean for the undergraduate program and the dean in the coming academic year.

17. Move to establish a pilot portfolio project in 1998; encourage development of diverse models to be evaluated and presented to the larger community.

2000 response: Pilot project is now in its third year. Current status: Based on the success of the assessment pilot, we continue to use the CIRP and NSSE data and senior exit-interview assessment instruments.

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18. Consider and articulate the balance portfolio projects should maintain between the use of internal and external criteria in assessing outcomes.

2000 response: The plan as described should provide an appropriate balance. Current status: All new assessment measures, particularly in highly structured academic programs, will consider external measures as well as internally derived outcomes. For example, a recent review and overhaul of the psychology department’s curriculum, and the discussion of its assessment, relied heavily on Psychology Association of America’s published outcomes. The Maryland Higher Education Commission is developing articulation standards that will also be considered during the next round of program reviews.

19. Review the program to see whether it should be expanded to all parts of the campus.

2000 response: Under consideration. Current status: The Assessment Oversight Committee will look into effective measures for all parts of the campus’ assessment endeavors.

20. Establish the norm of what assessment is to be done before any major changes are made to programs, majors, etc., rather than make arbitrary or uniformed changes.

2000 response: Established, in part. Current status: As we establish the specific outcomes to be measured throughout the curriculum, the norms for assessment of each program will be implemented. The faculty Curriculum Committee and the academic dean will be responsible for insuring that all new programs will have established assessment measures in place before programs are approved or changed.

21. Establish a central place to record student and faculty achievements so all offices have access to that information.

2000 response: Postponed until the appointment of a director of institutional research. Current status: Since the hiring of a director of institutional research in June 2001, centralizing the collection of all institutional information has been a high priority. This has been reinforced as senior staff positions have been filled with permanent appointments. We have not yet, however, fully centralized the reporting and recognition of both student and faculty achievements. Faculty achievements are reported by the academic dean to the trustees, annually. We plan to make that report accessible to a wider group of people on the campus.

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22. Standardize data collection from the Academic Center for Excellence and the Writing Center.

2000 response: Postponed. Current status: We have improved the data collection from each of the three centers during the past three years. Standardization has not yet been implemented.

76 Conclusion

This Periodic Review Report demonstrates that since receiving notification of reaffirmation of accreditation status by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 1999, Goucher College has strengthened the quality of its academic programs, developed clear and appropriate goals, and established processes and procedures to meet those goals. Each day, Goucher College is growing, creating, and discovering a brighter future.

Our curriculum will continue to be refashioned and restructured, making it more reflective of the way students learn best, through engagements with the world and each other. Directed by our faculty, the planned curricular enhancements will be reviewed and assessed on a regular basis.

The Goucher community will grow in size and will be characterized by the words “vibrant” and “diverse.” When completed, the Athenaeum will be the intellectual, social, technological, and cultural center of the Goucher community. It will house an expanded library, dining facilities, performance and lecture halls, group study spaces, and other common areas. It will be a place of powerful energy that draws our community together to exchange ideas and foster advocacy. Our campus will be further transformed through the construction of a new residence hall and the renovation of the current library into a facility for much-needed classrooms and faculty offices.

We are preparing our community for the largest fundraising campaign ever attempted by Goucher College. Led by President Ungar, the college is diligent in its work to identify and cultivate the type of leadership needed for success.

Our undergraduate enrollment program is healthy. Its growth is enviable, and reflects Goucher’s rising reputation among high school students and their parents. The college’s financial profile is equally healthy, and our total endowment investments have fared well during the recent slowing of our national economy.

Most significantly, this small liberal arts college with a big view of the world is implementing a strategic plan that will bring its name before a national audience. Our vision is rooted in the belief that in the 21st century, every academic inquiry and intellectual endeavor must have a global context. Our plan will transform our curriculum, our community, and our campus.

77 Appendices

78 Page: 2 [JPS1]Address SJU concern: “most selective ever...” Page: 22 [b2]Note has been sent to Roberto, asking about the 398 deposits. Page: 31 [b3]Note to Sandy: Both Roberto and Sharon verify that 91% is the correct figure for “some form of assistance.” Page: 40 [b4]from Jim: ambiguous. do we mean a specific regional studies program? Page: 59 [b5]Beth: I suggest we cut the sentence. It is not a defense of why we are just beginning a formal assessment.

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

I. Strategic Plan insert, Goucher Quarterly, April 2004, “Marking the Map of the World”

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

II. Briefing Booklet, “Transcending Boundaries of the Map & the Mind, A Bold New Vision for Goucher College, September 2003”

Periodic Review Report

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

III. Profile of Graduates from the Class of 2002

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

IV. Goucher College Board of Trustees, 2004-05

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

V. Fall 2004, Frontiers Course Descriptions

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

VI. Goucher College Dashboard Indicators, May 2004

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

VII. Curricular Transformation Group (CTG) II: Report and Recommendations, May 5, 2003 draft

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

VIII. 1/23/04 In Support of a Vibrant Intellectual Campus Community, 4th Draft of Combined Reports, September 12, 2003

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

IX. Faculty Senate Model

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

X. Bachelor of Arts with a Master of Arts in Teaching (BA/MAT) Proposed for Those Wishing an Alternative Route to Secondary Certification in Five Years, February 9, 2004

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

XI. Fall 2003, Frontiers Course Description

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

XII. Enrollment Management Five-Year Trend data

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Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

XIII. Curricular Transformation Group (CTG) III Cluster Course Proposal, September 29, 2003

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Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPENDICES

XIV. Institutional Benchmark Report, November 2003, National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), The College Student Report

2003 CIRP Institutional Profile (1082-00), Goucher College, First Time Full Time

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

Transcending Boundaries of the Map & Mind: A New Strategic Vision for Goucher College

As approved by the Board of Trustees May 2002

Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

APPEND ICES

PERIODIC REVIEW REPORT

Presented by

GOUCHER COLLEGE

June 2004

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER:

SANFORD J. UNGAR

APPENDICES Periodic Review Report

Presented by

Goucher College

June 2004

Chief Executive Officer: Sanford J. Ungar

CONTENTS

• Periodic Review Report • Executive Summary (15 copies) • Binder of Appendices • Transcending Boundaries of the Map & Mind: A New Strategic Vision for Goucher College, as approved by the Board of Trustees, May 2002 • Academic Catalogue, 2003-2004, Education Without Boundaries, Goucher College • Campus Handbook, Goucher College 2003-2004 • Agreement between Goucher College Laborer’s District Council of Baltimore and Vicinity Amalgamated Municipal Employees, Local 1231 Laborers International Union of North America, AFL-CIO for Service and Maintenance Employees (effective June 1, 2000 through May 31, 2004) • Financial Statements June 30, 2003 and 2002 (with Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon) • Financial Statements June 30, 2002 and 2001 (with Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon) • Undergraduate Faculty Handbook draft • Goucher College Fact Book, Fall 2003 & Fiscal Year 2003, prepared April 2004 (annual institutional profile)