LCO Ojibwa Community College is not unique to many institutions of higher education. The 2002 Collection of Papers on Self-Study and Institutional Improvement contains several papers that discuss implications of leadership turnover on the implementation of assessment plans (Rice, 2002). Since the submittal and acceptance of the 1999 Assessment Plan, the author of the Plan left, a new academic dean and assessment coordinator were hired as well as new faculty members. Due to these changes in administration and faculty, the full implementation of the Assessment Plan did not occur as intended. While the Plan itself was the result of intensive dialogue among faculty and administrators during the 1998-1999 academic year, the resources and infrastructure necessary to track and document the implementation of the Plan fell through the cracks. As discussed below, there may have also been design elements that inhibited the evolution of the Plan to a fully functioning Program of Assessment. This is not to say that no assessment had occurred. A few faculty members have reported that data collection had begun and remains in the offices of individual faculty without a systematic analysis and dissemination of the results of assessment. Those programs with certification and licensure requirements used outcomes assessment models that corresponded to guidelines of those professions.
When funding became available, the College posted the Assessment Coordinator position on its web site. Six individuals applied for the position and four were interviewed. When the candidates visited campus, each met with the search committee and presented a short teaching unit on Assessment before a group of faculty members. The individual offered the position had teaching obligations until May 11, and thus began her duties on May 14, 2002, during Finals Week, the last week of faculty contracts.
The new assessment coordinator came directly from another accredited institution of higher education. A full-time faculty member with experience with assessment, institutional research, and accreditation at a four-year private college, the new coordinator reported to duty and immediately began to research the curriculum, degree programs, and the documents pertaining to assessment. The last key document on assessment, the 1999 Assessment Plan, became the focus of attention and it forms the basis of this Report to the Higher Learning Commission.