SJSU Capacity and Preparatory
Review Report
Essay 1: SJSU Capacity with Respect to Defining
Institutional Purposes
and Ensuring Educational Objectives
Introduction
The first section, “Institutional Purposes,” describes
SJSU’s context as the oldest (1857) and now among the largest
and most varied public higher education institutions in California.
SJSU’s objectives today are in large part defined by its service
to “Silicon Valley,” one of the most sophisticated business
and technology centers in the world, and by its efforts to meet the
increasingly varied educational interests of the people of the San José
area. SJSU’s capacity to respond to emerging educational issues
is documented, and the processes by which campus leadership consults
internally and externally to renew university goals are explained. The
second section, “Institutional Integrity,” speaks to established
policies and procedures, to commitment to the rights and protections
of all, and to secure fiscal infrastructure -- all in support of the
scholarly search for truth, of commitment to higher learning and the
dissemination of knowledge, and of providing quality learning opportunities
for all constituencies. SJSU shapes its programs through its responses
to issues raised in external reviews and accreditations, as well as
in internal analyses of its own probity and effectiveness. Both sections
highlight the use of evidence in evaluating success, and in updating
university purposes, fiscal and personnel safeguards, and methods for
self-analysis.
Institutional Purposes (CFR’s
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.9)
SJSU’s role in the higher education community and its relationship
to society are in large part the result of its history, its membership
in the 23-campus CSU system, and its mandate for educational delivery
to a complex metropolitan area.
History, Demographics and Institutional Mission. The
university was founded as a Normal School nearly a century and a half
ago. Since that time, SJSU’s Santa Clara Valley home has evolved
from a rich agricultural valley to today’s center for high tech
innovation. The past two decades in particular have seen vigorous growth
in business, engineering, and many computer-based fields. The attendant
rapid growth of a well educated urban population that wants high quality
services motivated SJSU to renew and expand degree and extended education
programs in music and arts, health care, social services, K-12 education,
hospitality and tourism, and in the social and political structures
within which all community services operate. Since 1970, in parallel
with Valley development, SJSU has placed greater emphasis on graduate
work and on scholarly achievements of faculty; 30% of degrees are now
master’s, with one new joint doctoral program in place. SJSU is
taking steps towards becoming a “destination university,”
while continuing to emphasize both “Access and Quality”
as core values.
In concert with the change from agriculture to technology, a sophisticated
urban environment emerged. Many people in the service area have emigrated
from other parts of California and the US, and from other countries.
Incoming populations to which SJSU has responded with educational services
began with agricultural migration from Mexico; this, and struggles over
housing for African-American students in the 1960s and 70’s were
the first true multi-cultural awakenings on campus. In the 1970’s
and 80’s waves of refugees from Vietnam and other Asian countries
influenced by the Vietnam War introduced a range of backgrounds that
demanded new educational responses to non-Western language and cultural
issues not previously encountered. The arrival of generally well educated
political exiles from Iran introduced yet another new cultural perspective.
More recently engineers, technologists, and business persons, and their
families, from India, China, the Philippines and other Asian countries,
as well as from Central and South America, all eager to participate
in the revolution of Silicon Valley, have continued to enrich campus
culture while voicing demands for quality education in all disciplines,
especially business and technology.
In response to changes in the region, SJSU has repeatedly demonstrated
readiness to respond to the need for qualified employees ranging from
business managers, engineers, and programmers to healthcare providers
and teachers. The fact that SJSU's mission statement opens with reference
to collaboration with the community further attests to the institution's
dedication to the region it serves. The Mission
defines SJSU’s purpose and reflects a clear understanding
of essential values and acknowledges SJSU’s identity as a public
university (“a responsive institution to the State of California”).
The mission statement outlines learning goals for its undergraduate
and graduate students and makes clear SJSU's commitment to "teaching
and learning with a faculty that is active in scholarship, research,
technological innovation, community service, and the arts." The
values identified in the SJSU mission statement are widely recognized
throughout the institution. They are elaborated in college
and department
statements which, often point by point, have been linked
to the overall university mission statement.
Also influencing SJSU's character and composition is its membership
in the California State University (CSU) system. As a member, the campus
must comply with such mandates as enrollment targets, admission criteria,
fees, remedial education, as well as system approval and periodic review
of all degrees (CSU
Information for Campus Accreditation). However, each campus in the
CSU system does have its own distinct attributes and is expected to
address regional needs. In this arena SJSU has excelled by responding
to constituents' needs with innovative programs in a wide range of areas,
including, among others, computer-based design in the arts, microprocessor
fabrication, management information systems, taxation, Bay Area conservation,
social work that has a multicultural focus by charter of the College,
biotechnology-plus-business, and programs that address the infrastructure
needs of this dense urban area—administration of justice, hospitality,
health care, transportation, media and communications, etc. Such programs
address both regional needs and the Mission’s charge “...to
transmit knowledge to its students along with the necessary skills for
applying it in the service of our society..,” and focus as well
on the goal of involving students in “active participation in
professional, artistic, and ethnic communities.”
To continually improve its services and programs a variety of evidence-based
assessment procedures (including input from the community) enable the
campus to see clearly how well the university is achieving its purposes
and its goals. These include, but are not limited to, Program
Planning, General
Education Assessment process, the Graduation
Writing Requirement, SJSU
Accountability data, surveys
of employers and graduates, and data accumulated in departmental assessments
of student learning. In their Program
Planning, departments must document how they are serving the greater
mission of the university. Likewise, during the recent Academic
Priorities process all programs were evaluated on congruence between
their goals and SJSU’s mission. In addition, the goals of the
mission statement that tie expertise in a major to broad social issues
are reflected in depth in the 1998 GE
policy.
While its size and scope have changed significantly since the days
when the campus was a Normal School, SJSU remains committed to the values
upon which it was founded, including its commitment to preparation of
teachers, to inter-segmental collaboration, and to direct service to
local populations (“SJSU: A Metropolitan
University,”).
Leadership in support of Institutional Purposes: A Faculty Council
formed in 1952 encouraged formal debate among faculty, administrators,
staff and students regarding campus issues. In 1974 the Council became
an Academic Senate.
The Senate has generated many policies
that ensure comprehensive, in-depth collaboration in selection of leaders
and their accountability for responsibilities assigned them. These include,
among others, a policy on Selection
and Review of Administrators, as well as an annual
review of Management Personnel Plan (MPP) employees within which
are evaluated requirements in “Leadership Core Competencies”
-- Planning, Organization, Leadership, Supervision, Prevention, Compliance,
Development and Communication.
Leadership, The King Library, A Brief Case Study (see
also Standard 4 Essay
for a full description). Soon after his arrival, President Caret was
apprised of a need for library expansion on a campus where space was
severely limited. He proposed a University-City library, and called
together a leadership team that included the Provost and decanal representatives,
Academic Senate leaders, faculty and staff, students and Student Affairs
leaders, as well as key personnel from administrative, plant operations
and financial units. Normal campus hiring procedures (shared leadership
in selection of administrators) were used to hire a new Library Director
to oversee implementation of the project. President Caret asked the
team to work closely with him and with counterparts in the city to develop
partnerships with local and state political leaders, community supporters,
and the Chancellor’s Office. The collaborations complemented the
university’s abilities as the leadership team secured legislative
approval and funding for the project, and solved many logistical problems
of design, construction, fund-raising and policy. Combined leadership
was able to allay skepticism on the part of many faculty who felt the
project would endanger scholarly resources. Senate leadership crafted
a new library policy that included safeguards about faculty concerns.
The leadership team relied upon a Special Library Committee to integrate
the many pieces of this complex endeavor. Essay 4 addresses the striking
success of this collaborative leadership endeavor that now stands as
a model of SJSU’s capacity to use established processes to bring
about effective, consensus-based, community-integrated, long-range academic
planning.
Institutional Integrity (CFR’s
1.4, 1.5, 1.7,1.8)
As a mature public institution, SJSU had in place many policies and
procedures to ensure sound ethical practices in educational and administrative
functions. All policies are available to the public; many, especially
those of direct concern to students, are in the Catalog
and/or Schedule
of Classes and Senate
web site. The first section below cites policies that protect academic
freedom, lay out procedures for grievance resolution, and ensure fiscal
integrity. In reviewing policies relevant to this Standard the reader
will note that most have been updated within at least the past decade.
As society changes the university must change as well, e.g., on such
matters as intellectual
property. A closing case study on Campus Diversity illustrates how
SJSU has demonstrated its ability to sustain integrity in a complex
situation.
Integrity in the Academic Environment: Examples include:
- Academic Freedom: Policy
S99-8, Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility, holds
that “…freedom in research is fundamental to advancement
of knowledge…” and “…freedom of teaching is
fundamental for the protection of the student in learning and the
faculty in teaching…”
- Due Process in Resolution of Grievances: The policy on Student
Rights and Responsibilities and the one on Academic
Fairness detail protections for students, as does Chancellor’s
Executive Order 628, published in the Catalog and Schedule of Classes,
and included in campus Judicial
Affairs procedures.
- Integrity in Business Operations: SJSU complies with State and Federal
law, and with CSU Administrative
manual mandates. The University and its auxiliaries are audited
regularly, often unexpectedly, by the Office of the Chancellor. In
Data
Element 6.3, the key financial stability ratios demonstrate SJSU’s
fiscal integrity.
Case Study of Effective Institutional Integrity: Campus
Climate and the Commitment to Diversity (To place this case study
in context, please review the campus
response to previous WASC recommendations)
History of Diversity at SJSU. SJSU first made diversity
“news” when Tommie Smith and John Carlos, SJSU athletes,
gave their famous Black Power salute on the Olympic medal stand in Mexico
City in 1968. In October, 2003, these athletes were honored at a “Commemorating
a Legacy” fundraising dinner for an on-campus-statue. In intervening
years the campus has maintained a steady African-American enrollment
that reflects the population percent (under 5%) of its service area.
As the Hispanic population in California has grown, so has that in the
South Bay; SJSU’s Mexican-American and Other Hispanic students
stand at 13%, growing but still below that of the region in part because
of high K-12 dropout rates of Hispanic students and less-than-optimal
pre-college counseling. A dramatic change in campus
diversity has been the growth of students who self-identify as Asian.
SJSU has been a non-majority campus for about five years, with an undergraduate
plurality of Asian students. The SJSU student body IS ethnic diversity.
Recent analysis of employer feedback that SJSU must pay more attention
to its graduates’ communication skills revealed that almost 60%
of undergraduates do not report English as their native language, and
that many still do not regard it as primary. The campus response to
language diversity has been extensive, as documented in its Writing
Handbook.
But the campus is diverse in more than ethnicity and language background.
About 42% of undergraduates are over age 24; many have families and
work many hours per week. About 35% of undergraduates are estimated
to be the first in their families to attend college. Graduation rates
even at 6 years are not high (Data
Element 6.1). Given the high costs in our area, one contributing
factor is that students typically work (see NSSE
summary page 4) while attending school. In part, SJSU responded
to the array of student needs by opening a Child Care Center and by
laying plans for the in-progress Campus Village housing effort that
triples the number of on-campus accommodations (see Administrative
Division mission statement p. 4). Also, SJSU has long incorporated
gender and sexual orientation in its definition of diversity. SJSU’s
core value of “Access” requires that it continue not only
to serve existing diversity but actively to solicit enrollment in every
realm of diversity, and continue to respond in the future, as it has
in past, to its students’ needs.
Campus ability to respond to the reality of its diversity:
The case study goes to the heart of SJSU’s ability to maintain
integrity in its educational environment. A student body that is significantly
more diverse than faculty and administration sometimes perceives that
the university is not as supportive of their issues as they would like.
Whatever the truth of the situation, these perceptions could cause university
tensions with the potential to interfere with educational objectives
and thus with SJSU’s ability to recruit and retain a scholarly
faculty and well qualified support staff.
While most find diversity enriching, the campus has on several occasions
had to respond to cautions, especially student cautions, about a need
to protect individual rights whenever cultural disagreements arise.
Over several years, specific issues have arisen around ethnic studies
requirements, insensitive treatment of students by university staff,
support for programs for underserved students, and public vandalism
with a racial basis. Faculty, staff, and administrators have moved aggressively
in many ways to minimize such conflicts and turn diversity into a growth-enhancing
reality. This section summarizes SJSU’s capability to ensure the
rights of all while nurturing and responding to the multi-faceted diversity
of the campus. It also points out an ongoing need to use campus planning
and allocation to ensure that the activities discussed continue to be
assigned appropriate campus-consensus priority – not an easy task
in an era of slim resources.
Faculty recruitment: Within the legal constraints of
California Proposition 209, the campus continues to recruit faculty
from under-represented groups in an effort to match faculty ethnic diversity
more closely with that of the student population. Departments are encouraged
to send position announcements to focused journals, such as Black Issues
in Higher Education and Hispanic Outlook, in addition to general outlets
like the Chronicle of Higher Education and discipline-specific publications.
Faculty
position announcements, p. 29, Announcement of Position Availability,
now state that SJSU hires only those who have demonstrated appreciation
of ethnic and cultural diversity and who also have experience in educating
a diverse student body. The first two questions on hiring justification
forms require departments to address these matters directly.
Continuing to close the faculty-student ethnicity gap is one situation
where the campus must use consensus procedures that will ensure that
resources devoted to such an effort are broadly supported. For example,
there may be need for some subsidization of the housing costs that federal
studies reveal disproportionately discourage minority recruits, who
are often less able to draw upon family resources for down-payments
and related entry costs The campus has undertaken efforts to meet this
housing challenge. An employer-assisted housing program was thoroughly
explored but set aside when costs proved prohibitive. An inventory of
13 rental units is available to faculty and staff at lower than market
rates; these houses were acquired from the city redevelopment agency
and renovated by the Spartan Shops auxiliary. The Campus Village, due
to open in 2005, will include housing units for faculty and staff. A
task force developed criteria and guidelines for allocation of the new
units. The availability and cost of housing in Silicon Valley continue
to fluctuate with the vagaries of the local economy, and transitional
versus long-term criteria are not easy to develop.
Campus interviews will reveal that SJSU’s intention to increase
the diversity
of its faculty is a well known campus value, even if occasionally
there are disagreements about the proportion of allocations devoted
to this goal.
Campus Leadership: The number of minority (African-American,
Hispanic, Asian, Native American) administrators increased between 1994
and 2003 but the percent remained constant. If this is to improve, an
integrated campus planning process must assign a high enough priority
to minority administrative recruitment that appropriate resources will
be made available.
The Campus Climate Plan: Many have worked to improve campus
climate in an effort to enhance the educational environment, and the
retention, of a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students.
Efforts have included the creation of a position of Assistant to the
President for Campus Climate with responsibility for a campus plan to
improve climate, establishment of a campus climate committee, and repeated
surveys of employee satisfaction. The President worked closely with
his new Assistant to build a collaborative Campus
Climate Plan, made Campus Climate an essential theme of his Presidency,
and took pride in a growing agenda of activities, workshops, festivals
and the like targeted towards enhancing appreciation of all for a campus
with a mix of students, staff and faculty. In an era of lowered state
support, such activities constitute a resource expenditure that will
compete with more traditional academic priorities, accentuating the
need for a visibly consensus-driven campus-wide prioritization and resource
allocation process.
Faculty Development: A required New Faculty Orientation
includes education on campus diversity, its rewards and challenges.
The Center for Faculty Development and
Support established the position of Faculty
Member in Residence in Diversity to be ‘on call’ to
individuals or to departments asking how better to foster education
in the diverse student classrooms that characterize SJSU. In the late
1990’s, the campus over three years made about $200,000 available
to academic departments to sponsor diversity education programs for
faculty and staff.
Curriculum. Critical curricular advances include those
of the 1998 GE Guidelines, in part in response to an earlier WASC visit
that asked the campus to expand beyond a single ‘cultural pluralism’
requirement. Diversity must now be addressed in every GE course. Two
Advanced (upper division) GE Areas, S
and V
focus explicitly on diversity. In the approval of GE courses through
the Board of General Studies, and in the mandated assessment
of student learning in GE, SJSU’s success in fostering an
understanding of and appreciation for diversity is a key element.
Co-Curricular Activities. Student
Affairs has promoted International Days, opened a MOSAIC Multi-cultural
Center with a permanent director, sponsored workshops and many student
activities whose focus is not just resolution of the tensions of diversity
but, more importantly, infusion of diversity into co-curricular activities
as “wealth” for a complete education, both personally and
professionally. Counseling, Health Center, Student Life, Disabled Resource
Center – all units of Student Affairs – easily document
their rich agenda of programs and activities in multiculturalism,
including many conducted collaboratively with units in the academic
division.
In conclusion, diversity has evolved into a positive, unifying campus
theme that reaches all levels of the university (and has been recognized
for its success). In this way, SJSU continues to mirror the strengths
and character of its many constituents.
Summary
SJSU is a respected senior institution that has always taken seriously
its obligation to provide access and quality education to all, with
emphasis on the needs of its region. A long history of campus responsiveness
in curriculum and student support, based on evidence of need, documents
this continuing strength. Extant policies are updated regularly, and
their use is an integral part of the university’s culture. The
capacity for SJSU to be a model for large, urban public institutions
in its elaboration of purpose and integrity is both realized and still
remains of high potential for the future.
However, serious challenges to the quality, and hence the integrity,
of our programs exist today as SJSU seeks more effective ways to ensure
that constrained resources from the state will be well matched to consensus
educational and service priorities. Senate leaders are conducting discussion
on how better to integrate CSU-mandated annual updates to the campus
Academic Master Plan into long-term resource allocation strategies.
Many aspects of Enrollment Management rely heavily upon campus-wide
prioritization for resource allocation. Enrollment planning is forced
to confront the probability of decreased enrollment for a few years,
when growing enrollment has historically generated extra campus financing
from the CSU. Prioritization is needed: does SJSU preserve costly graduate
programs at the expense of lower-division efforts – or the reverse,
or does it move to self-support at the graduate level? Deans and chairs
are engaged in intense, painful, discussion of how to maintain program
quality in the face of severe budget cuts. There is discussion of the
need for SJSU to achieve consensus in identifying and defending its
core degree programs, the sine qua non programs for SJSU’s very
essence as a university -- perhaps at the sacrifice of other less central
degree paths. Academic diversity, one of our sources of pride, is necessarily
under discussion. As noted in Essay 3 “Where attention is needed
is the area of setting goals, prioritizing them, and allocating resources
for their support." This Preparatory Review has engaged many in
facing up to the need to resolve some of these historical challenges
in the face of today’s budget retreat. Interim President Crowley
and the Senate have established a new Resource
Planning Board that will play a key role in the university’s
future. A few issues that are generally agreed to need more attention
in integrated long-term resource planning include: the place of doctoral-level
education, internationalization of the curriculum and of student experiences,
use of First Year Experiences
to enhance undergraduate retention and graduation, modernization of
older curricula, and enrollment management strategies linked more directly
to consensus-based educational objectives in individual academic units.
Meeting Standard 1 is not an issue for SJSU. The
question is not whether, but how, the campus continues to achieve a
full range of access and the very high educational quality to which
our outstanding faculty strive, in an era of uncertain resources. SJSU
has a capacity for exemplary effectiveness. In the EE review we will
examine the extent to which we’ve utilized this capacity and evaluated
evidence of what has been working well, and what less so, to facilitate
decision making.
Back to Table of Contents Page
WASC Standard 1
The institution defines its purposes and establishes educational objectives
aligned with its purposes and character. It has a clear and conscious
sense of its essential values and character,its distinctive elements,its
place in the higher education community, and its relationship to society
at large. Through its purposes and educational objectives, the institution
dedicates itself to higher learning, the search for truth, and the dissemination
of knowledge. The institution functions with integrity and autonomy.
WASC Categories Under Standard 1
- Institutional Purposes
- Integrity
Criteria for Review addressed in Essay
1
Institutional Purposes
- CFR 1.1 - Mission Statement
- CFR 1.2 - Educational Objectives
- CFR 1.3 - Institutional Leadership
Integrity
- CFR 1.4 - Academic Freedom
- CFR 1.5 - Diversity
- CFR 1.6 - Educational Focus
- CFR 1.7 - Academic Policies and Procedures
- CFR 1.8 - Student Grievances/complaints
- CFR 1.9 - Business practices
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