Periodic Review Report Presented By: Hamilton College Clinton, New York June 1, 2016 Joan Hinde Stewart, President Most Recent Decennial Review: April 2011
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Periodic Review Report Presented by: Hamilton College Clinton, New York June 1, 2016 Joan Hinde Stewart, President Most recent decennial review: April 2011 Table of Contents Section 1: Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... 4 Section 2: Institution Responses to the Previous Evaluation ........................................................................ 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 6 Mission and Goals..................................................................................................................................... 6 Leadership, Governance, and Administration ........................................................................................... 9 Integrity ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Admission, Retention, and Support Services .......................................................................................... 10 Faculty and Educational Offerings ......................................................................................................... 11 Section 3: Current Status – Challenges and Opportunities ......................................................................... 14 Leadership Change .................................................................................................................................. 14 Faculty Retirements ................................................................................................................................ 14 Diversity .................................................................................................................................................. 17 Affordability ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Facility Planning ..................................................................................................................................... 21 Athletics .................................................................................................................................................. 21 Health and Counseling Center ................................................................................................................ 21 Center for the Humanities ....................................................................................................................... 22 Other Opportunities ................................................................................................................................ 22 Section 4: Linkages between Institutional Planning and Budgeting ........................................................... 23 Strategic Planning ................................................................................................................................... 23 Annual Planning, Budgeting, and Assessment ....................................................................................... 23 Other Institutional and Financial Planning Linkages .............................................................................. 25 Section 5: Enrollment and Finance Trends and Projections ....................................................................... 26 Five-Year Financial Forecast .................................................................................................................. 26 Required Documents ............................................................................................................................... 31 Section 6: Organized and Sustained Processes to Assess Student Learning............................................... 32 Assessment of Curricula and Student Learning ...................................................................................... 32 Student Learning Assessment Activities Initiated After the 2011 Review .................................... 33 Ongoing Student Learning Assessment Activities ......................................................................... 37 Institutional Assessment ......................................................................................................................... 39 Institutional Assessment Activities Initiated After 2011 Review .................................................. 39 Ongoing Institutional Assessment Activities ................................................................................. 40 Appendix A. HEDS Alumni Survey 2012 Academic Experiences Report. ................................................ 42 Appendix B. Trend analysis of pre- and post-need-blind policy. ............................................................... 48 Appendix C. Learning Resource Centers development plan. ..................................................................... 49 Appendix D. STEM interest and First-Year Course status. ........................................................................ 51 Appendix E. Comparative AAUP Salaries 2014-15 and 2015-16. ............................................................. 52 Appendix F. Results of Faculty workplace survey. .................................................................................... 53 Appendix G. Formation of CAP Subcommittee on the Curriculum. .......................................................... 54 Appendix H. Affirmative Action Report May 2015. .................................................................................. 56 Appendix I. Strategic Plan, January 2009. .................................................................................................. 66 Appendix J. Hamilton College Strategic Plan Update. ............................................................................... 68 Appendix K. Facility Planning, Hamilton College. .................................................................................... 90 Appendix L. Academic Department Annual Report. .................................................................................. 92 Appendix M. CAP Allocation Guidelines. ................................................................................................. 95 Appendix N. Department/Program Periodic Review Process. .................................................................... 96 4 Section 1: Executive Summary Hamilton College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college in which students take responsibility for their education through an open curriculum. A faculty and a corps of educational professionals dedicated to teaching and mentoring deliver our curriculum and support student learning; Hamilton emphasizes writing, speaking, and quantitative and symbolic reasoning across the curriculum with assistance from renowned learning resource centers. There are 43 concentrations (majors) and 41 minors, allowing students to complement their broad general education with a wide choice of disciplinary programs. With all students living on campus, vibrant co-curricular programming and social activities, and a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio, Hamilton students are part of a close-knit, supportive, academic community. The visiting team report from Hamilton’s 2011 Middle States accreditation review was affirmative, with no recommendations. However, there were many helpful suggestions for all standards, and particularly Standard 14, assessment of student learning. In response, the Dean of Faculty has instituted systematic new assessment protocols, and has engaged the faculty to think more holistically about our teaching and learning enterprise. The assessment of student learning is based on two premises: first, that the faculty are the drivers of assessment through their regular interactions with students; and second, that curricular planning and development are necessarily intertwined with assessment – one cannot be considered without the other. The Dean of Faculty conceptually illustrated this through a flow chart of “faculty- centered assessment” (FCA), from the course level through long-term college curricular development, linking assessment, change, and resource allocation (see section 6). Among steps to document FCA, the Dean restructured the annual department and program reports to record assessment activities of faculty and resultant curricular changes, linked periodic departmental and program review to our faculty allocation process, and asked our faculty Committee on Academic Policy to institute a long-term curricular planning process that incorporates these assessments. Apart from assessment and other successes over the past five years, the College has faced serious challenges. The Title IX landscape is evolving; several years ago, the College created a full-time Title IX coordinator position, and has conducted either its own survey or the HEDS Sexual Assault Climate Survey annually. While the surveys found too many students have been victims of assault and unwanted behavior, the Title IX Coordinator’s work has borne fruit: the percentage of students at Hamilton who were familiar with sexual assault policies and procedures was very high. Nevertheless, the US Department of Education is currently investigating a complaint about a recent case at Hamilton. Understanding the climate for students of color and other underrepresented groups is another