Full-Time Faculty Handbook - 07. Program Reviews
All university departments and programs shall be reviewed every seven years to assess their performance. Intended to determine program quality and need, program evaluations will seek to assess program excellence in the field, student learning outcomes, relevance, and market demand. These reviews will start with an internal evaluation (or “self-study”) conducted by the department and proceed with an external evaluation conducted by a group of outside experts convened by the provost. These periodic program reviews will be a principal vehicle for academic and budget planning and the associated decisions about strategic investments, growth, and program direction. Program reviews are also important mechanisms for establishing demonstrable institutional need for both RTA, RTA-OARS, and EE faculty.
Establishing Institutional Need
Institutional need can be called into question either by a periodic program review that results in a negative evaluation or by an executive decision by the president and/or provost that a program, department, area of study, or college must be closed, reduced in size, or changed for strategic, market, or fiscal reasons.