Director of Strategic Planning and Assessment Cindy Cogswell impresses with multiple publications

Cindy Cogswell has had a productive first year as the Division of Student Affairs’ director of Strategic Planning and Assessment. Since starting in February, Cogswell has been published twice, is presenting at conferences in October and November and is expecting an additional two publications before the end of the year.

Her first publication, “Trends in the Fraternity and Sorority Experience Survey as Generation Z Joins,” was featured in The Oracle Research Journal. Cogswell worked with Dawn Maynen and Deborah Lee from the Fraternity and Sorority Experience Survey team at Pennsylvania State University.  The research looked at Gen Z students’ reasons behind joining sororities and fraternities and discussed how the experiences they are having differ from those of previous generations.

Later, Cogswell co-wrote “Do Classifications and Rankings Improve or Damage Institutions?,” a chapter of “The Three Cs of Higher Education: Competition, Collaboration and Complementarity.” Her co-authors were Victor M. H. Borden, a professor at Indiana University, and Fox Troilo, a senior research advisor at Hanover Research. The chapter used Dartmouth College and Indiana University as examples of how classification and ranking systems impact critical activities at higher education institutions. The authors looked at how American research universities address, respond to and manage rankings and how these classifications influence institutional behavior, leadership and planning.

In addition to her publications, Cogswell will have presented several times before year’s end. In April, Cogswell spoke at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting. She presented “Unintended Consequences: Exploring the Impact of Assessment on Institutional Change and Policy?” with her co-collaborators, Gianina Baker, the assistant director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, and Marjorie Dorimé-Williams, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. They analyzed the use of assessment in scholarly articles from 2006 to the present.

Cogswell recently presented at the Assessment Institute with Imants Jaunarjs, the assistant vice president and executive director of Ohio University’s Career and Leadership Development Center. Their presentation, “Assessing Leadership Development: A Credentialing Model for Innovation Between Academic and Student Affairs,” discussed how academic and student affairs departments can partner to develop credentialing frameworks.

Finally, Cogswell looks forward to presenting at the Virginia Assessment Group conference in mid-November.