Institutional Effectiveness

What is Institutional Effectiveness?

Institutional effectiveness is the process of understanding whether, how, and how well Baruch College is delivering on the promise of our mission, attaining our institutional goals , educating and supporting students in a manner that facilitates their attainment of learning goals, and ensuring ongoing compliance with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation.

Collaborative Learning as our Institutional Effectiveness Model

At Baruch College, we use collaborative learning as the conceptual framework for our institutional effectiveness model. This allows us to integrate our activities around mission, assessment, planning and resource allocation, as well as allowing us to engage in a truly transparent, collaborative, and communicative process of collectively committing to accreditation compliance. We believe that collaborative learning is the key to a strong, sustained culture of assessment and effectiveness.

Our model includes the following four elements of a collaborative learning process, which we envision as relating to several core aspects of institutional effectiveness.

Public reflection (Assessment of learning and development, academic and administrative program review, and regional and specialized accreditation)
Creation of shared meaning (Discussion and collaboration)
Joint planning (Strategic and operational planning)
Coordinated action (Teaching, research and scholarship, service, program implementation, training, fundraising, and resource allocation )

Sharing Data, Information, and Insights

The Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness collaborates with many partners across Baruch College, each of whom oversees different areas which contribute to the data and information knowledge base upon which decisions are made. These partners include:

The Baruch College Office of Institutional Research which compiles, maintains, and analyzes institutional and other data to support the operation, decision-making, and planning functions of the College.

The Division of Enrollment Management, including the Enrollment Management data team and the Division’s Assessment Committee.

The Division of Student Affairs, including the Division’s Assessment Committee.

The Marxe School of Public and International Affairs Dean’s Office, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office, and the Zicklin School of Business Dean’s Office, including the Associate Deans, the school business managers, the school assessment managers, academic Department Chairs, and department assessment coordinators.

The Baruch Faculty Senate, which represents the General Faculty in areas of faculty responsibility, interest and concern. As noted in the Faculty Senate bylaws, its purposes are to: (1) formulate an recommend policies to the Administration and other bodies of the College with regard to relevant aspects of college-wide planning and operation; (2) review and comment on policies contemplated or initiated by the Administration and other bodies of the College, and (3) to provide a channel of communication among the faculty, student organizations and the administrative officers of the College.

Integrated Assessment, Planning, and Resource Prioritization / Allocation

As part of our collaborative learning model of institutional effectiveness, Baruch College engages in an integrated approach to assessment, planning, and resource prioritization/ allocation.

Assessment

The Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness partners with faculty and staff across all three schools and all divisions and department on assessment of student learning and development, assessment of administrative, educational support, and student support (AES) units, and assessment of institutional effectiveness. Learn more about assessment by accessing this part of our website.

Planning

The Office of Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness partners with the Office of the President on strategic planning for the college as a whole. The Strategic Plan Steering Committee consulted extensive with faculty, staff, and students, and developed the Baruch College Strategic Plan 2018-2023 which is the road map for the entire institution. The Implementation Working Group collaborated with Deans, Division Vice Presidents, faculty and staff on the implementation plan, which is the collective responsibility of the entire institution.

Individual units, such as schools or divisions, may also have their own strategic plan. All units, both academic and administrative, integrate the Baruch College strategic plan goals into their own planning and assessment work, so that periodically, all academic and administrative units assess their progress on both their own unit strategic and operational goals, as well as those of the college as a whole.

Resource Prioritization and Allocation

Baruch College resources are part of the City University of New York system-wide budget process. Policies and procedures are overseen by the CUNY Office of Budget and Finance.

The Baruch College Office of Administration and Finance is responsible for the stewardship and enhancement of the human, physical, and financial resources of Baruch College. Within the Office of Administration and Finance, the Baruch College Office of Planning and Budget is responsible for aligning planning and budgeting activities and processes, to effectively and efficiently maintain and develop human, physical, and financial resources for the College.

Within the guidelines provided by these offices, each academic and administrative unit incorporates results of their own unit assessment processes to inform resource prioritization and allocation.

Guiding documents for our approach

We base our approach not only our our model of collaborative learning, but in part also on the guidance provided in the following resources:

Hollowell, Middaugh, and Sibolsk (2010 digital update) Integrating higher education planning and assessment: A practical guide.

Seymour and Bourgeois (2018) Institutional effectiveness field book: Creating coherence in colleges and universities. This book and other related ideas are discussed in a 2018 interview with Daniel Seymour published by the Association for Higher Education Effectiveness.

Mechanisms and Processes for Assessing and Ensuring Institutional Effectiveness

Baruch College engages in a holistic approach to institutional effectiveness, based on our model of collaborative learning. We review, analyze, discuss, collaborate, plan, and implement changes based on a varied portfolio of assessment, research, and evaluation mechanisms and processes.

These include but are not limited to the following:

The annual CUNY Performance Management Process
The annual reporting cycle for the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) as well as reporting for system-specific data on outcomes, admissions, degrees granted, enrollment, student demographics, SEEK and College Discovery programs, and STEM enrollment.
The semi-annual CUNY Student Engagement Survey
The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction Survey, a national survey from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The National Survey of Student Engagement, a survey from the Indiana University Bloomington School of Education.
Faculty-led college, program, general education, and course assessment of student learning.