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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            F03-4

 

At its meeting of November 24, 2003, the Academic Senate passed the following Policy Recommendation presented by Judith Lessow-Hurley for the Curriculum and Research Committee.

 

POLICY RESOLUTION

Coordination of External Accreditation with the Program Planning requirements

 

Amends S96-10

 

 

WHEREAS,               Approximately half of the programs at San Jose State University have external accreditation requirements administered by either state or national agencies;

 

WHEREAS,               The accreditation period granted by external agencies varies from 4 to 10 years but the current SJSU Program Planning Process requires a self-study every 5 years according to S94-2 “Organization of the Program Planning Process at SJSU” and S96-10 “Program Planning Process;”

 

WHEREAS,               Programs must submit a self-study to external accrediting agencies prior to a scheduled site review and the self-studies overlap to varying degrees with the self-studies required by the Program Planning Process, and where a difference in self-study requirements exist, all programs are required to comply with the requirements of the program planning process (S94-2 and S96-10);

 

WHEREAS,               The current policy creates redundancy and increases work demands on programs with external accreditation, therefore be it

 

RESOLVED:                         That for those programs with accreditation cycles of 7 years or fewer the scheduling of program planning will coincide with the external accreditation and those programs with an accreditation cycle of 8 or more years will complete the SJSU Program Planning Process half way between the external accreditation reviews.

 

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED:                         that Section VI. E. of S96-10 be amended to include the following language:

 

Those programs with accreditation cycles of 7 years or fewer will have the schedule of program planning coincide with the external accreditation. Those programs obtaining accreditation for a period of 8 or more years will complete the SJSU Program Planning Process half way between the external accreditation reviews.

 

Amended S96-10 to follow:

S96-10

PROGRAM PLANNING PROCESS

 

Resolved,

That Sections V. and VI. of S94-2 (Organization of the Program Planning Process at San Jose State University) be amended as follows:

 

 

 

 

V. Academic Senate Participation in Program Planning

 

 

 

 

A. The Curriculum and Research Committee (the committee CRC) and the Program Planning Committee (PPC) represents the Academic Senate in the program planning process. The committee PPC must judge whether the review process was conducted in accordance with the published Program Planning Guidelines, and whether the plan represents a reasonable effort to meet the future needs of the students, faculty and community. After its own review of each program plan, the committee PPC may recommend several actions to the Provost:

 
  • Accept the plan without modification
  • Provisionally accept the plan with suggestions for improvement and/or requests for additional information
  • Reject the plan for explicit reasons.
  • Initiate a program termination review for explicit reasons.

 

B. If the recommendation is to accept the plan or provisionally to accept the plan, the PPC shall make its recommendation directly to the Provost, with an information copy tot he CRC. If any other recommendation is proposed, the PPC shall first present its recommendation to the CRC. After due consideration of all written material considered by the PPC and of any new material presented to the CRC, the CRC shall forward the recommendation of the PPC to the Provost with the CRC's report endorsing or modifying the PPC's recommendation. Before a CRC report is forwarded to the Provost, the PPC chair, designated PPC liaison, and a representative of the program shall be invited to attend a CRC meeting to discuss its proposed report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VI. Facilitation of Academic Senate Participation in the Program Planning Process

 

 

 

 

 

A. Provost/PPC COORDINATION. The Provost conveys to the committee all the information to which it is entitled under this policy. The committee supplies its recommendations (as provided above) either directly to the AVP or via the CRC. The AVP conveys all recommendations to the program under review.

 

 

B. INFORMATION. The PPC shall receive copies for all relevant program planning documents and information, including all information provided to outside accreditation agencies or to outside reviewers, as specified in the Program Planning Guidelines. The committee will take care to safeguard confidential materials.

 

 

C. LIAISONS. The PPC may appoint one or more liaisons to observe each program planning process. These liaisons act on behalf of the committee and shall be invited to all relevant meetings (e.g., exit interviews, college committee deliberations).

 

 

D. PROGRAM PLANNING GUIDELINES. In assessing the quality of each program plan, the CRC and PPC will use standards established in the Program Planning Guidelines. The University's "Statement of Curricular Priorities" will be incorporated into the guidelines. The committees shall be consulted when these guidelines are modified.

 

E. OUTSIDE ACCREDITATION. Reviews by external accreditation agencies are considered a de facto program plan, provided that such reviews address all criteria of the program planning guidelines. A supplement to an accreditation report addressing those concerns of the University not covered by the outside accreditation process is required. 

 

Those programs with accreditation cycles of 7 years or fewer will have the schedule of program planning coincide with the external accreditation. Those programs obtaining accreditation for a period of 8 or more years will complete the SJSU Program Planning Process half way between the external accreditation reviews.

 

 

F. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY. The CRC and PPC may consult with other operating committees reporting to the CRC when evaluating program plans.

 

Approved:                  November 3, 2003

 

Present:                      Emily Bruce, Peter Buzanski, Bob Cooper, Subjankar Dhar, Bob Hyde, Judith Lessow-Hurley, Nader Mir, Kathy Rott, Pam Stacks, Dominique van Hoof, Beth Von Till, Hyon Chu Yi  

 

Vote:                           12/0/0

 

Financial Impact:       Neutral impact or slightly positive with respect to personnel time spent on these activities.  (1)  IPAR will not have to pull data for programs as frequently.  (2)  Faculty and Staff will optimize time spent on review and planning processes for their curricula.

 

 

 

ACTION BY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT:           APPROVED BY INTERIM PRESIDENT

JOE CROWLEY ON 12/3/2003