Academic Support Unit Review Process

The goal is to create and implement a process to review academic support units across campus. Academic Support Units are defined as offices and organizations which function to support Ohio University’s academic mission. The review program will be designed to assess whether the unit supports the academic mission, operates with efficiency and meets the needs of its stakeholders. The review process is also expected to adopt a culture of synergy between the support units and the academic mission of Ohio University. The review will be instrumental in helping the institution operate efficiently while also meeting the needs of its stakeholders.

The budget constraints Ohio University has faced in the past and will continue to face in the future has made it imperative that the institution as a whole operate as efficiently as possible, and at the same time effectively accomplish its academic mission, meet the needs of its stakeholder groups and maintain its competitive edge with other institutions of higher learning. An effective academic support assessment process will allow the institution to meet these goals while facing difficult budgetary challenges. The development of an effective academic support assessment program was also a goal of the institutional strategic plan (http://www.ohio.edu/vision/). This assessment program will be instrumental to inform decisions related to the quality improvement of the academic support units of the institution

• Academic Support Units- These offices will be expected to provide documents and actively participate in the review process.
• Office of Institutional Research- This office will be responsible for providing the needed data and information to support the assessment process.
• Stakeholder Groups-All stakeholder groups of the university; students, faculty, staff, alumni etc. will be called upon as participants in the review process and have an interest in the successful completion of the project.
• University Executive Leadership- Successful completion of the project will require the university President, Vice Presidents, Provost and Deans to use the assessments from the review process to inform future decisions related to the support units.

• Student Support Areas-Reviews of student support units (examples: Housing, Dining Services, Registrar, Financial Aid, etc.) will help these units function with greater efficiency but at the same time be supportive of stakeholder needs.
• Faculty Support Areas- An effective review process for units which support faculty needs (examples: Faculty Development Offices, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, etc.) will help these units better serve the needs and expectations of the Ohio University Faculty. 
• Staff/Alumni Support Areas- Units such University Human Resources, University Benefits Office, The Office of University Advancement, Alumni Relations, etc. serve many campus constituencies including faculty, staff and Ohio University alumni. An effective review process will help improve services offered by these units to their constituency groups.

When the goal of creating and implementing an academic support unit review process was identified as part of the institutional strategic plan, the Executive Vice President and Provost organized a committee charged with
creating a template for an institutional academic support unit review process. This committee has worked for two years to complete this charge and develop a master review schedule. During the 2008-09 academic year, the committee is in the process of staffing and overseeing the piloting of the review process with the initial cohort of academic support units. In the future, the committee will be responsible for managing the review process and continually making changes to improve it.

This project has been in the planning stages at the university for a period of two years and as a result has gained significant momentum to insure its success. The successful completion of the pilot reviews, securing permanent
funding for the project and the monitoring and implementation of changes to the program to increase its benefit to the institution will all be used as indicators that the action project is progressing.

• Successful completion of the academic support unit review pilot project.
• Securing permanent funding from the university budget for an ongoing review program.
• Incorporation of the process into the operational “fabric’ of the institution.
• Evidence that the academic support unit review process identifies gaps in effectiveness within the academic support units.
• Evidence that reviewed units demonstrate effective continuous improvement.