<p> EAG Minutes 9.11.03</p><p>Present: Norm Fischer, Henry Gambill, Steve Hewgley, Nancy Magnusson, Don Thompson, Darryl Tippens</p><p>Darryl gave an extensive summary of his recent meeting with Ralph Wolff of WASC. He touched on several topics:</p><p> The importance of the Academic Liaison Officer (ALO), which is the role Darryl serves for us, interpreting WASC messages and transmitting them to our campus  The ALO must be able to involve the faculty in the creation and maintenance of the “culture of evidence”  This involves faculty understanding what “counts” as evidence, which requires university-wide discussion  The WASC review process is no longer the “circus coming to town”, but more like the Olympics  We must demonstrate that we have structures in place to maintain the assessment dialog on our campus. This involves conversations across units and departments too.  We must translate the university mission into research questions – purpose questions, service questions, and leadership questions  We must be able to demonstrate how our daily activities fit into this larger mission picture.  Whittier College, for example, is holding faculty retreats to discuss the question: What is Excellence?  Scary things coming out of congress o Institutional autonomy questions relating to higher education o Congress is angry over higher ed costs o No child left behind legislation o Town vs. Gown perception gaps o Retention rates under scrutiny o Demand for proof of the value of higher ed and its spiraling costs  Learning is the key issue – we must do a better job developing our own theories of learning.  Do we have a body of thought on this subject at Pepperdine? We should be able to explain our own practiced learning theories</p><p>Darryl referenced a reading list on the subject of learning and indicated that Pat Gibson would make it available.</p><p>Considerable discussion ensued over these ideas and the notion of vocation came out as the operating synonym for purpose in our mission statement. Indeed, the entire mission is about vocation – purpose (God’s), service (to God and our neighbors), and Leadership. Don & Henry reported on their recent meeting with Robert Lloyd and Ted Parks regarding the CISL program review. The final report will be done on September 29 at which point it will be reviewed by David Baird and the newly forming University Faculty Assessment Council, before it is finally sent on to UPC.</p><p>One critical issue that came up in the CISL meeting and is a continuing assessment issue is how to compensate faculty who work on these reviews (e.g. Ted Parks for CISL). Shall we provide stipends? Release time? This is a systemic challenge.</p><p>Nancy added that all of these program reviews need to be made available to the rest of our university community. Web dissemination seems to be the best approach.</p><p>The meeting concluded at 2:30.</p>