Chancellors’- Area IE Summary

The chief administrators of seven independent NC State units report directly to the Chancellor. These units do not have similar or related missions and they are not organized under a larger coordinating administrative structure the way other university units are (e.g., Academic Affairs units, Business and Finance units). The NC State organization chart shows the reporting relationships. The seven direct-reporting units are:

Links to each unit's summary of self-assessment and institutional effectiveness activities are in the list above and in the Documentation section, below. Overall, almost all of these units have well-developed institutional effectiveness processes, some of which are quite mature and sophisticated.

The assessment activities are as varied as the units' missions. Counts and amounts are typically used to evaluate progress toward financial-development objectives such as building the university's endowment and funding athletics programs. Programs such as the Park Scholarships and student-athlete development activities look at students' participation and resulting performance. The recently instituted Kenan Fellows Program for Curriculum and Leadership Development is evaluating research fellows' performance. Units that provide service to other university units, such as data for decision-making or legal and risk management advice, examine client-units' use of and satisfaction with their services. Service units such as Internal Audit, Legal Affairs, and University Planning & Analysis monitor what services clients use most often and survey their "customers" on a regular basis.

The units vary in how explicitly assessment results are used in planning and reflected in their Compact Plans. All the units use assessment information for planning and program improvement, but while some have formal processes that explicitly link assessment results with decision making, others use assessment information informally and as needed. Not surprisingly, the amount of structure is related to the type of objectives and assessment methods each unit has. Processes to evaluate and plan with assessment information tend to be more explicit and formal when objectives are student/professional development or client use/satisfaction than for financial development goals. For example, Internal Audit and Legal Affairs use assessment information in weekly meetings to review current and pending cases, and Park Scholars program staff discuss results with their advisory board several times a year.

The individual summaries also indicate that the units' assessment-based institutional effectiveness processes are at various stages of development. For example, the Park Scholarships program and the Kenan Institute are relatively new units with assessment plans in process but not yet mature. Other units' processes are more established. University Planning & Analysis' summary is a good illustration of how well-established processes continue to develop as a function of experience and changing needs.

On the whole, these units' assessment and institutional effectiveness activities reflect the general culture of assessment that is becoming progressively stronger and more explicit at NC State. Most units are fairly clear about what they want to accomplish, how they evaluate their progress, and how they use that information. Where this is not the case, units are generally moving toward more formal assessment.

Documentation
These links lead to individual unit summaries. Some of the summaries include further links to supporting details. Other details are on file and available on request.

Department of Athletics	Park Scholarships Program
Internal Audit Division	University Advancement
Kenan Institute	University Planning & Analysis
Office of Legal Affairs

A "site map" of the Chancellor's-area information has direct links to each area's supporting documents on the web and lists of documents that are on file but not available on the web.