FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                          April 7, 2006

NORTHWESTERN GROUP MAKES PRESENTATION IN CHICAGO

            A group of administrators from Northwestern Oklahoma State University earlier this week attended the annual meeting of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the accrediting agency for the university.

            The group, including Dr. Steve Lohmann, vice president for academic affairs; Dr. Mike Knedler, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences; Dr. James Bowen, dean of the School of Professional Studies; and Dr. Mark Denton, director of assessment, made a presentation before the commission.

            Titled Extreme Makeover: Reinventing the Faculty Evaluation Process, the presentation explained how Northwestern completely revised the faculty evaluation system.

            “The old system included only student evaluations and academic dean evaluations of faculty,” Knedler said. “It was full of problems—student evaluations often took months to process, and deans evaluated faculty without much first-hand information.”

            He said the revision began in the fall of 2002 and took two years to complete. The system now is based on the “best source” principle. Faculty are evaluated by peers and department chairs on select criteria that they have first-hand knowledge of. They also are evaluated by students who see them in class every day. The student evaluations are completed online in a manner unique to Northwestern.

            Knedler said that the evaluation system was revised with input from the faculty at every stage of the redesign process.

            He said the Northwestern group was given a room that would hold 180 people.

            “Our topic was so popular that we had standing room only and ran out of handouts for the attendees,” Knedler said.

            Northwestern submitted its presentation proposal last fall and was notified in December that it had been accepted. The group wrote a paper that will be published in the proceedings of the annual meeting and were required to submit copies of handouts in advance.

            Dr. Cheryl Evans, dean of Northwestern-Enid, also attended the meeting. She serves as a peer reviewer for the Program to Evaluate and Advance Quality of the HLC.

-NW-

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