Even though the paperwork hasn’t been completed and we have yet to receive a “final” report, our on-site review team gave us a “two thumbs up” for our compliance and focused reports. The QEP Initiative–GEMS, Gateways to Excellence in Math and Science, was “approved” so that we can go ahead and start working on the project; there are some things to improve, just the same. The final report will likely indicate a need to improve the assessment portion of the project, tying together outcomes and objectives more closely to specific interventions and long-term goals. That said, we’re glad to get the “go ahead” to start working on this exciting project.

Thanks to our Visiting Committee for their insight - and thanks to those at UTD who spent many, many hours working to make the reaffirmation project a success.

Special “props” to Serenity for her unflagging efforts to edit the often uneditable, to Simon for making tools grow to meet user need and to simply user interaction, to Mona for scanning as if there were no tomorrow, to Metta for her stubborn streak that ensured everyone met deadlines whenever possible, and to Julie for trying to herd cats when it came to make all the arrangements. Special thanks to Robert Nelsen for tackling a rough assignment and making it work.

Because the UT Dallas Compliance Certification Report is so extensive (500 pages plus supporting documents numbering over 100,000), some of us thought it might be a good idea to make a brief version available for those of you who are interested. To that end, a brief (albeit 46 pages) summary of the Compliance Certification Report is available online at http://dox.utdallas.edu/narrative1041.

Okay, it’s a hokey start, but it points to something actually important. The QEP Proposal submission is Gateways to Excellence in Math and Science (GEMS, get it?). So, what is GEMS all about?

Improving student achievement in, initially at least, freshman calculus and chemistry classes is a primary focus of the GEMS initiative. That said, the proposal focuses on dedicated space for a quasi-lab to support supplemental and peer instruction as well as computer-aided instruction for calculus and gen-chem, starting in fall 2008. Okay, maybe that’s not “the” focus. Maybe the focus is on course realignment and supplemental instruction and peer-led instruction and a host of other elements–all of which, in tandem, should provide a strong and supportive foundation to students in calculus and chemistry sections.

So, if you want to learn a bit more, go to http://www.utdallas.edu/GEMS. While you’re there, play the GEMS game for a shot at an Ipod Shuffle–and read more about the project.

It’ll do you good!

The on-site review committee chair will arrive Sunday for an afternoon meeting that will include the “top brass” of the university to preview the next day’s visit as well as the on-site review following in March. Then it’s time for the game!

Monday, however, it’s back to business, with an early meeting to familiarize the visiting chair with the tools we’ve used locally to develop our reports and web presence. Then it’s on to meetings with each of the major component groups, including student affairs, business affairs, academic associate deans (curriculum), etc. The goal here is to give the visiting chair a chance to lay out his expectations for the visit and get to know the key players - and for the key players to field a few questions about what they should continue to do in final preparation for the visit.

For example, should we put together a war room - or should we keep pushing everything to the web? Should we plan to put together student focus groups about the QEP - or should we just wait and gather a few folks at the last minute? You know–nuts and bolts things.

The nice thing is that it will be nice to put a real face on this process at last.

(And you thought I’d gone away?  tsk tsk)

Yes, after the off-site review, we had a bit of housekeeping to do, and that has resulted in the Focused Report(s). The QEP proposal is also a part of this submission. As a result, on 31 January 2008, we’re submitting both the Focused Reports and the QEP to our on-site Review Team.

They’ll have three ways to view the Focused Report: in printed form on paper, on a CD (with all the documents included), and online via the web site. The QEP initially be available only on paper or on the CD; we’ll not post the QEP documents until we have a final-final–incorporating any suggestions or feedback we may get from the Team. (We want you all to think we’re perfect, after all.)

So it’s another rush to get things done, but we’re approaching our deadline - and once we’re done, we’re all going to sit back and breathe deeply for a day or two - and then we’ll get back to work on the budget!

Yes, the sound of contentment as one lies back and relaxes, the long and slow exhalation of breath that comes from knowing the compliance report has been collated, packed, shipped, and received at each location.

After that unfortunate incident whereby UPS managed to misplace a package from a vendor in San Francisco, the very vendor who was re-creating the binder index tabs for the notebooks - it is good to know it all came together.

Serenity, Simon, Mona, Rhonda and I went to Kinko’s/Fed Ex on Thursday last to put the finishing touches on it all and ship it out.  That done, we convened at TGIF’s for a light lunch before returning to pickup the tracking information on the 12 or 13 packages.  We headed back south to campus and spent a few last hours putting the finishing touches on the website (well, Simon did that).  And we all left Friday to spend a week-end away from the dreaded report that has occupied so much of our time over the last 18 months.

So now we get to re-focus on the QEP while the reviewers spend the next 2 weeks reviewing the UT Dallas response to the principles of accreditation.

Next milestone:  The external reviewers convene in Atlanta in November to identify potential areas for focused reports.

But for now, I’m back at the desk working on the myriad other things that have had to slide for the last couple of weeks.  Once I’m “caught up” (as if that’s really possible), I may start to feel human again.

And for all those who helped make this thing really come together, THANK YOU!

Today we turn loose the reviewers to pound on the system, to scour the report for every error of fact or punctuation or spelling or what-have-you, and to make our tech support folks climb the walls as they try to keep up with bugz-reports.  It’s half-exciting and half-scary as we realize that we’re running toward deadline.

We already have plans in place to print the final document (20 copies, sheesh) and to assemble the notebooks for shipping.  Looks like we’re in for some long nights over the next week.

Has it been worth it?  Basically, yes.

We’ve seen that, for the most part, things really do work they way they’re supposed to work.  The occasional glitch would pop up, and we’d try to figure out why it was a glitch and how best to fix it.  Serious glitches?  Nope.

So, onward, my comrades in editing!

…but that tunnel still seems awfully long from here - and that light still seems mighty small.

Okay, we’re getting there. We are pushing to finalize all last edits before we turn it all over to the folks who will “bang” on the review site to test the system, the documents, and the accessibility. Lauraine O’Neill in Communications has done a great job of putting together the notebooks for the “hard copies” of the report - and they look cool. (Okay, that mermaid theme bothers ME a bit, but I can live with it.) Rhonda and Reena are still wrapping up edits. Robert has enlisted a small army of folks to bang on the system next week. Simon and Mona are already putting things in final form for those reports that are really done. (There are more than I’d expected.)

Okay, so this isn’t a lot of news for you, but it’s great news for the team!

Sunday, 12 August 2007.

Today we submit a draft version of our Compliance Certification Reports for review by a group of officials at The Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.  The submission consists of a memo detailing instructions for navigating the documents, a single 3 MB file that is a .pdf version of our entire certification report (including all the principles and responses), and, possibly today or tomorrow, a submission about our QEP (the review exercise).

Putting this together has been an interesting experience.  People have suddenly gone into high gear to identify the problems that “must be fixed.”  Let’s see:  All those document descriptions that we list with each report (or response to each principle or standard) needed to be reviewed for misspelled words.  Hmmm.  Then some of those descriptions didn’t make any sense.  (HB254 removal?  Uh, no.  That’s HB 254, legislation that removes a restriction on UT Dallas’s student population.  Oh, yes, that.)

Serenity has done yeoman’s service here - editing and re-editing until her eyes seemed permanently glazed over.  Simon turned out new tools and software at rapid pace, breaking even his own land-speed record.  Metta worked into the night to prepare a usable document.  Robert found that there are limits which even he cannot escape in life.  JoyLynn, Rhonda, and  (Mr. QEP himself) John worked and worked to finalize responses to the “review exercise.”  Ben has developed fat fingers from all the last-minute data entry work.  Mona has struggled to keep the rest of us sane while managing to keep her own projects on a steady path.  Abby’s been rewriting text on a couple of major areas.  Hey!  It’s been a rough week!
Alas, we’re about to press the “send” button and ship this stuff off into the ether that is the internet.