CURRENT Self-Study Questions

Measure/Topic	Narrative and Analysis	Statistical Tables/Supporting Documents
Mission	When was this department organized? What are the key historical events in its development? Are there any legal or other requirements for its existence? What is the program's mission and purpose within the context of the university mission and the Board of Governors' Strategic Plan? Describe the intellectual arena of the academic department in general and at FSU. Does the academic department have a strategic statement or guiding document?	List of degree programs and the majors offered by level (OIR). Identify the mission of the program. The Florida Board of Governors' Strategic Plan can be found at this link. List of institutes and centers (Dean). Provide an organizational chart. Copy of strategic statement or guiding document.
Comparable departments	How does this department compare with others in same or closely allied disciplines on campus, in SUS, or nationally?	Use five aspirational and five comparable departments/ universities in terms of mission, size and quality (you may use NRC data).
Priorities and Accomplishments	What are the department's highest priorities? What are the five most important contributions of this department in recent years?	List any regional or national rankings of faculty or programs in the last five years. Comment on the availability of national rankings in your discipline and on your opinion as to their reliability and validity.
Instruction, Research, Public Service	Do this department's undergraduate/ graduate instructional programs and the research and public service programs interact and support each other? Does one detract from the other? Provide a statement of how instructional assignments are made among the faculty. Describe a "typical" and/or "aspiration" faculty assignment in terms of courses by level and number of students and/or credit hours to be taught in a semester or academic year, and the research and public service components. Explain how differentiation is made for faculty who are assigned considerably more or less courses/hours, or do more or less research or public service. What are the goals for the relative contribution to the teaching mission by graduate assistants, adjuncts and others? At what course levels? How accurately can the department measure student demand? What is the level of unmet demand? Evaluate the extent of diversity in the department among faculty, students and staff. Describe ongoing faculty development activities and resources (TAs, RAs, equipment, etc.) available to faculty.	Five year history, by level: fall term majors, summer term credit hours, academic year credit hours, annual credit hours and FTE's, degrees awarded, average class size (OIR). For GPC: Provide list of faculty with their degrees, institution, date highest degree awarded. Provide an updated Unit Accomplishment Summary with information on teaching, research, and service (forms provided). Provide table of all faculty with median SUSSAI scores from last five years (forms provided). Faculty vitae (see p. 4, 6.d.). Individual faculty courses, enrollments, hours for fall and spring with department averages (provided by OIR). Comparison of instruction to Delaware study results (provided by OIR). Proportion of courses/hours taught by adjuncts, graduate assistants, others (OIR).
Relationships with other university units	How does this department relate to other teaching and research units to enhance the mission of the department? Describe those within the College, and those in other colleges and schools. Describe any formal or informal roles and relationships.	List interdisciplinary degrees/majors. List interdisciplinary institutes/centers.
Instruction, Research, Public Service	Other than students, who are the primary beneficiaries of the activities provided by this academic department? What would be the impact to the constituencies and the University if this organization were not in existence?
Relationships with other university units	Comment on the perceived adequacy of the E&G budget, including building space allocated and how used. Is equipment adequate? Comment on the availability and sources of external funding and on the department's goals and success in this regard. What is the College's policy on the use of dollars related to vacant E&G positions? On carry forward? For GPC describe library resources both space and resources. What other facilities and resources are necessary for students in the program, both graduate and undergraduate? Are these currently available? If not, what is needed?	Five year table: E&G positions by pay plan, E&G expenditures by object code grouping (OIR). C&G proposals, acceptances, expenditures (OIR provides expenditure info.), Indirect Overhead assessed, Indirect Overhead returned to the department by the University (from C&G).
Self-Assessment/ Outside Assessment	Does the department have a statement of self-assessment, including what the department determines are its accomplishments and needs for the future? How does the assessment fit with the mission, goals, objectives and outcomes of the department? Give specific examples of unit strategies for improvement. Does the department survey its students and/or the employers of its students? Discuss major findings/issues for each of the above.	Provide copies of any of these available. Provide results from student surveys if available (should be included in the narrative for student learning and program outcomes).
Problems over the next five years.	What are the greatest problems facing the unit over the next five years?
Attainment of goals, increased success and recognition.	What do the department, the college and/or the university have to do to achieve the department's goals, the college's or university's?
Future contribution and resources.	Can the department increase its instructional contribution (i.e., teach 10% additional hours/courses), or increase research activities, with existing resources, within current mission? If not, what changes or additional resources would be required?
GPC 1. Recruitment/ Enrollment/ Retention/ Graduation data for all graduate degrees	Comment on the size of the graduate program and any trends in the graduate program statistics. Does the program's size create problems, is program growth (or shrinkage) a goal? Is retention a problem? Comment on the diversity of the student body (gender and ethnicity). Describe how recruiting is done. Include recruitment documents (brochures, etc.) and/or address for materials posted on the web. If the department operates graduate certificate programs or offers large graduate service courses these should be described.	Provide chart of numbers of students applying, admitted, enrolled, graduated, numbers who drop out, time to degree, and GRE and GPA scores (or other appropriate metrics) and gender and ethnicity of enrolled students over the last five years. Data should be separated by degree (but may be combined if most appropriate). Provide a list of Doctoral graduates for the last 5 years with dissertation title and name of major professor.
GPC 2. Placement data, and other quality indicators of the graduate programs	Report on placement of masters and doctoral graduates for the past five years. Comment on the data on graduate student publications/creative works, presentations, awards, fellowships and other quality indicators. Comment on any contact with or outreach efforts to alumni.	Provide a chart of masters and doctoral recipients for the last five years, numbers of publications and presentations or other quality indicators (awards and fellowships, etc) for each student, and information on student placement. For the doctoral graduates list their dissertation titles and major professor.
GPC 3. Curriculum	Comment on the currency and adequacy of the curriculum. Are there difficulties in course scheduling and availability, enrollments. Describe the faculty teaching loads. Will distance learning play a role in your enrollment planning at either the undergraduate or graduate level?	For each degree and majors within the degree, provide a chart or table showing elements of the curriculum, include a plan of study and indicate what are core courses and commonly chosen electives. Provide a list of all the courses offered in the last five years, when they were offered, name of the instructor, and enrollment in each.
GPC 4. Advising and professional preparation of graduate students	Explain how student advising is done. Describe the "milestone steps" in the degree program (diagnostic exams, preliminary exams, prospectus, etc) and how these are administered. What are the success rates on these exams? Provide statement on professional preparation of students for academic or non-academic roles including teaching and research.	Include a copy of the departmental handbook for graduate students or a web link to the handbook.
GPC 5. Resources for graduate training.	Explain how students are supported, comment on the fraction of students supported on personal funds, teaching assistantships and grants and fellowships. Give stipend levels and comment on how they compare with national averages and how student funding impacts the program's quality indicators. Are there trends in the support data over the last five years? Provide statements on space facilities, equipment, library and other resources available to graduate students. Are there facilities and resources needed for students in the program that are not currently available or are difficult to access? If so, are their plans for obtaining these resources?	Provide a table showing how the student's were funded (TAs, grants, fellowship, personal funds, etc.) for each of the five years covered by the review.
GPC 6. Faculty Research/ Creative Activity	Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the faculty's research/creative activities.	Provide full CVs (in official FSU format) for all program faculty (do not print them but provide a CD or a link to a website with all the vitas collected together) (see p. 4, 6.d.).
GPC 7. Summary of program strengths and weaknesses	Comment on data specific to graduate education. What particular strengths, weaknesses, concerns do the data in GPC 1-6 indicate? (For example, what do admission rates, and the demographics and stated goals of the admitted students indicate about the strength of the program)?
FBOG 1.	Identify the last and next specialized accreditation review. What degrees are covered?	Results of last specialized accreditation review.
FBOG 2.	Please identify instructional outcome measures you are currently using or planning to use.	Data from measures.
FBOG 3.	Describe ways in which past evaluations of departmental performance have led to improvements and any plans to use current and future measures to further improve the program.
FBOG 4.	Provide statement of goals and objectives in areas of teaching, research and public service.	Documents prepared at start of self-study.
FBOG 5.	Identify all program outcomes and include assessment methods and criteria for success.	Portal entries may be used. The narrative should be comprehensive and include a discussion of the sufficiency of resources and support services to achieve the program goals/objectives.
FBOG 6.	Identify all student learning outcomes and include assessment methods and criteria for success as well as the associated results and action plans/improvements. Student learning outcomes must be identified in the areas of content knowledge and skills, communication skills, and critical thinking skills.	Portal entries may be used. The narrative should be comprehensive and include a discussion of the sufficiency of resources and support services to achieve the program goals/objectives.
FBOG 7.	Review lower level prerequisite courses to ensure that the program is in compliance with state-approved common prerequisites and (if appropriate) a review of the limited access status of the program to determine if such status is still warranted.
FBOG 8.	Has this organization been reviewed by outside consultants in the last five years, such as the SUS Program Reviews and Graduate Policy Committee (GPC)?	Indicate major findings from the last review and note major changes that occurred as a result of the outside review. Also, indicate the date of the last review of this program.
FBOG 9.	Indicate whether this program review was conducted in conjunction with an accreditation review.
NOTE: For self-study binders, use the above sections as a guide for your dividers.