The Task Force assembled at 8 am. in Behmler Conference Room.

• Sungur called the meeting to order.

• The Task Force elected Bert Ahern as Chair.

• The discussion turned to an evaluation of the proposed assessment plan. Members affirmed the principle of a "grass-roots" approach wherein the units proposed the student learning goals and the means of assessing the program's effectiveness in achieving its desired results. Such an approach was compatible with UMM's mission statement that UMM is a place "where students can shape their own education.." The plan should be as compatible as possible with the central task of helping students learn; it should resist features that distract from that goal. This seemed to endorse the draft Plan's emphasis on building from the current assessment practices of the units; working toward finding a common language and clearer articulation of practices.

• Suggestions for the plans refinement included the following. The plan needs to underscore the importance of connecting the unit goals with UMM's mission. A more detailed timeline of implementation should accompany the plan [how many programs need to complete their assessment plan by June 1997, by June 1998? how many programs need to have gone through an assessment cycle by the time of the next re-accreditation report? how should this process relate to the 2 year Bulletin sequence, the 5 year program review cycle, the reaccreditation review?]. The Task Force should include an estimated operating budget for the assessment process. In implementing the plan, the first attention should go to discipline programs rather than individual courses or co-curricular programs. The General Education Committee should be encouraged to include assessment goals and approaches in its revised proposal.

• The discussion also focussed on what consultation needed to occur prior to taking the Plan to the Campus Assembly for approval. Ideally, those committees whose charges are most closely related to the work of the Assessment Committee would comment on the proposed plan. To accomplish this might make January Assembly action impossible. It would be better to accomplish good consultation, it was argued, than rush action. The Chair and the Director should also seek to meet with the Division Chairs. To gain wider advice and awareness of the plan, Sungur proposed soliciting responses from disciplines and other appropriate units to a set of guidelines for the development of assessment approaches. He will bring a draft of the questionnaire [based on the draft guidelines distributed at the last meeting of the TFASL] to next week's meeting of the TFASL. That meeting was tentatively set for Monday, Dec. 2, at 4 pm.

  The meeting adjourned at 9:10 am.

  Minutes submitted by Bert Ahern