University of Hawaii - West O'ahu
Proposal for Self Study
Established in 1976, the University of Hawai'i - West 0'ahu (UHWO) is an upper-division, baccalaureate institution, one of 10 campuses in the University of Hawai'i (UH) System. UHWO enrolls approximately 685 students, most of whom attend the main campus in Pearl City. (Approximately 10% reside off-island and attend courses through distance education technologies.) The average age of UHWO's students is approximately 32 years. The institution is organized into three academic units (the Divisions of Humanities, Professional Studies, and Social Sciences) and grants Bachelor of Arts degrees in Business Administration, Humanities, Professional Studies, Public Administration, and Social Sciences.
Context for the Review
In January, 2000, the UH Board of Regents approved UHWO's Long-Range Development Plan that provides for construction of a permanent UHWO campus to begin in 2006 on land in Kapolei donated by Campbell Estate. Upon completion of that campus, UHWO will become a four-year institution. Until that time, however, UHWO will remain an upper-division institution, housed on a site on the eastern portion of Leeward Community College (LCC), one of seven community colleges in the UH System.
When an accrediting team selected by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) visited UHWO in 1996, the institution was located in three buildings on the western end of the LCC campus. Physical conditions on campus were so unsatisfactory that the WASC team reported that the institution's number one priority should be "resolution of the prolonged crises of inadequate space and facilities essential to creating a viable set of campus programs." In 1998, UHWO moved and increased its operating space from 5,600 square feet to approximately 30,000 square feet. With this move, the campus acquired adequate physical resources to support its educational programs and related activities.
Having achieved the number one goal recommended by the WASC team, UHWO's first priority is now to establish what the WASC team termed "stronger, more coherent educational programs for an upper division campus with more direct links to the nearby community college." A major step in the process of developing a more coherent curriculum has been accomplished: institution-wide learning objectives have been created and approved by the UHWO Faculty Senate. The next step in the process is to review and adjust the curriculum in accord with these comprehensive learning objectives.
Once the curriculum has been reviewed, UHWO will be in a better position to develop articulation agreements with various community colleges, including LCC. The 1996 WASC report recommended several times that UHWO faculty and staff "work more closely with their counterparts" at LCC. Since that report, UHWO faculty and students have been involved in learning communities with faculty and students from LCC. The institution has also established articulation agreements with several community colleges in the UH System, including LCC. An adjusted UHWO curriculum will enable the institution to identify additional ways to integrate its curriculum with the curricula of the community colleges to offer students, especially those in central and western 0'ahu, strong and coherent four-year academic programs.
The recently established learning objectives will also serve as the focal point for planned adjustments to UHWO's assessment measures. The 1996 WASC report recommended that UHWO's assessment procedures "be systematized and broadened." Since that time, UHWO has revised student evaluations of faculty, established guidelines for Senior Projects and Senior Practicums (the capstone experiences for UHWO students), and conducted academic program reviews. The institution must now develop a plan to measure student outcomes, especially in those areas identified in the learning objectives--written and oral communication, quantitative and qualitative reasoning, research skills, cultural awareness, lifelong learning, and creativity. In addition, UHWO needs to develop a systematic approach to assessing the educational effectiveness of distance learning.
Another finding of the 1996 WASC review was that UHWO faculty and staff are overextended. The team recommended that both the size of the faculty and the student services staff be increased. These recommendations are not easy to achieve since the acquisition of positions and funds for positions is the purview of the UH president, the UH Board of Regents, the governor, and the state legislature. Nevertheless, the institution has prioritized needs for faculty and staff for the 2001-2003 biennium and requested funding for priority areas.
The 1996 WASC report also recommended "that the West 0'ahu teaching faculty be encouraged and financially supported in their professional development." Although UH System travel and grant funds are more available than they were in 1996, the faculty still needs more financial and administrative support for their involvement in professional development. In addition, a systematic analysis of the professional productivity of the faculty needs to be completed, thereby fulfilling a goal stated in the UHWO 1996 Self Study, as well as a recommendation of the WASC report.
Diversity was another concern addressed in the 1996 WASC report, which recommended that efforts be made to recruit traditionally under-represented students and that the faculty become more diversified by gender and race. Although the student population is highly diverse, UHWO still needs to make systematic efforts to recruit traditionally under-represented students. To mentor such students, the institution also needs to hire more women faculty and faculty from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Theme and Strategy of Presentation
The process of accreditation review will enable UHWO to determine which recommendations from the previous WASC report have been met and which continue to require attention, especially in the areas of curricular revision, collaboration with the community colleges, assessment, professional development, and diversity. The results of the review will be presented in a comprehensive self study covering the nine standards now in use. However, since WASC is moving towards a new method of accreditation, the self study will also focus on a theme:
Emphasizing assess for nontraditional students to high quality upper
division programs in the liberal arts and professional studies.
As much as possible, each standard will focus on appropriate aspects of the theme:
- how UHWO emphasizes access to nontraditional students,
- how UHWO provides high quality upper-division education, and
- how the effectiveness of that education is measured.
The theme was chosen because it fits the UHWO mission, which in mandates to:
- recognize and meet the educational needs of under-represented students;
- serve the West 0'ahu region,;
- provide outreach to other parts of the state;
- emphasize flexible class schedules;
- stress quality teaching;
- offer innovative educational programs;
- offer interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and international studies;
- emphasize communication skills;
- offer public service activities; and
- foster life-long learning.
The self study will end with an Integrative Chapter that summarizes the major ways UHWO provides access to high quality upper-division education, especially to nontraditional and under-represented students, and assesses the educational effectiveness of its programs. The chapter will also explain how UHWO is moving from a compliance model of accreditation to a continuous improvement model. Description of this transition will include information about how the institution will continue to work to
- publish, implement, and assess educational objectives;
- develop a summary-data web site to evaluate performance over a period time;
- establish web links; and
- implement a process to produce and analyze portfolios.
The self study will be written by various committees with the final product to be integrated by the UHWO Accreditation Steering Committee. In addition, an Accreditation Web Site will be established, with links to other pertinent web sites, including the web sites for the UH System Institutional Research Office, the UHWO Student Services, the Faculty Senate, the Library, the Assessment Office, and the Writing Center. Additional data and documentation will be available to the visiting WASC team. And campus meetings will be scheduled between the team and various constituents of the campus community.
To demonstrate that UHWO meets the broad intent of the nine standards, the institution will provide accompanying documentation for the self study. In addition, UHWO will appropriate necessary resources for the assessment process, including recompense for the chair of the Accreditation Steering Committee and other resources as required. The institution will also revisit the curriculum to meet the objectives of the accreditation report and continue the process of developing a comprehensive system of assessment.
Methodology
A multi-method approach will be used for the self study. These methods will include compiling and analyzing statistical data, producing portfolios, and conducting surveys. To support the self study, a variety of qualitative and quantitative sets of data will be used, such as information from Hawai'i's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, data from the U.S. Census, UH Management and Planning Support documents, budget reports, divisional reports, program reviews, marketing surveys, student satisfaction surveys, examples of student work, policies and guidelines, charters and bylaws, organization charts, catalogues, handbooks, flyers, web sites, maps, and videos. Under the overall direction of the Steering Committee, subcommittees will be formed to address specific standards.
Engaging the Campus and Community
Throughout the review process, UHWO will involve a variety of constituents, on and off campus: faculty, students, administrators, staff, alumni, representatives of the UH System, the UHWO Advisory Board, neighborhood boards, appropriate legislators, and members of Campbell Estate.
Much of the campus community has already been engaged in the preparation of this proposal. On Professional Development Day at the beginning of Spring Semester, 2000, faculty, staff, and administrators formed groups to discuss the institution's priorities for accreditation review. An Accreditation Steering Committee composed of faculty, staff, and administrators was then established. That committee met on a regular basis throughout Spring Semester, 2000, to brainstorm ideas for the proposal, review documents, and compose, revise and edit the proposal. The first task of the Steering Committee was to develop the theme, which was then sent to both the UHWO Faculty Senate and the student government organization (ASUHWO) for approval. Throughout the semester, the chair of the Steering Committee presented reports on the progress of the proposal at Faculty Senate meetings, with synopses.of those reports posted on the Faculty Senate web page.
As the process of preparing for the accreditation review continues, the Steering Committee will coordinate all activities and report on progress to the UHWO Faculty Senate and the ASUHWO, as well as to the UHWO Administrative Council, the U14WO Alumni Association, the UHWO Advisory Board, the UH Executive Council, neighborhood boards, legislators, and members of Campbell Estate. Committees will be formed to write sections of the self study. Drafts of the self study will then be circulated to faculty, students and staff for comments. Drafts will also be posted on the UHWO web page and the Faculty Senate web page.
Goals and Expected Outcomes
The UHWO faculty, administration, and staff will use the accreditation review as a means of institutional evaluation and institutional improvement. The institution has three major goals in conducting the review.
Goal # 1: To determine how well the institution has identified its student constituency.
In meeting this goal UHWO expects to further develop its institutional data infrastructure. This system will increase knowledge about UHWO's student base, allowing the institution to focus its recruitment, retention, and matriculation efforts on students under-represented in higher education.
Goal #2: To determine how well the institution has provided access in terms of location, physical plant, course offerings and scheduling, distance learning, cost, faculty availability, articulation agreements, service hours, and support services.
UHWO would like to develop a realistic appraisal of how well the institution provides access. One objective is to discern the perceptions that students and the public have of the institution's ability to provide access and to determine if those perceptions are synchronistic with the intent and perceptions of UHWO faculty, administration, and staff. Another objective is to determine how well the institution serves students' needs, as well as to determine students' perceptions of how well their needs are met.
Goal #3: To determine how well UHWO accomplishes its educational mission in terms of providing quality teaching, an interdisciplinary curriculum, innovative offerings, public service activities, life-long learning, career-related education, cross-cultural and international studies, and communication skills.
To meet this goal UHWO will review its curriculum, make adjustments for greater coherence, and strengthen the interdisciplinary and innovative components of its educational programs.