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A Practical Guide for First Time Chairs of Decennial Reviews. Charles Caramello Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School University of Maryland December 9, 2010. OVERVIEW. Accepting the Assignment Planning the Review Preliminary and Team Visits Leading a Successful Team
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A Practical Guide for First Time Chairs of Decennial Reviews Charles Caramello Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School University of Maryland December 9, 2010
OVERVIEW • Accepting the Assignment • Planning the Review • Preliminary and Team Visits • Leading a Successful Team • The Team Review Report • A Final Note
PRINCIPLES The chair and team must take a comprehensive view, addressing all aspects of institutional performance in both breadth and depth. The chair and team must honor the mission of the reviewed institution, not substitute the missions of their home institutions. The chair and team must base their finding on evidence that, again, is interpreted in the context of the institution’s mission. Finally, and most important, the chair and team members are colleagues conducting peer review, not bureaucrats policing regulations.
ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS Establishing professional and collegial relationships is critical to success.
DURING TEAM VISIT • Team members should conduct individual interviews and group meetings on their assigned standards and attend open meetings on matters of interest to the institutional community. • Team members should use questions developed before the visit to guide interviews and meetings and should developadditional questions as the visit progresses. • The chair and full team should should conduct two large group meetings, dedicated to Standards 7 and 14, with key institutional leaders. • The chair and team should meet in closed session at least once daily. • The chair should be available to meet with individual team members to discuss any challenges or concerns. • The daily schedule should incorporate 15-30 minute breaks so team members can communicate with their home offices. • The oral presentation to the institution warrants full team attendance.
EDITING THE REPORT • Team should arrive at visit with a full and carefully drafted preliminary team report. • Team members also should be prepared to do extensive rewriting on site. • Chairs should be prepared to do substantial additional rewriting and editing on site. • Why should Chair and Team come prepared? • A fully prepared chair and team, with fully drafted preliminary report, make for a more successful, productive, and pleasant visit. • Why should team members rewrite extensively on site? • Questions will be answered, ambiguities will be clarified, and new information will emerge. • Documentary materials and interviews are fresh in everyone’s mind. • All parties, including Institutional Steering Committee, are present for consultation. • A preliminary draft is rough; a penultimate draft is polished. • At the conclusion of the site visit, the team member’s responsibilities end. • Why should chair do more rewriting and editing? • Extensively and individually written draft sections must become a concise document. • Team members have different “voices” and writing styles that must be made to cohere. • This draft of report will be the basis for the oral presentation. • The more work completed on site, the less work to be completed at home.
PRESENTING THE ORAL REPORT • Respect the institution’s seriousness of purpose, its achievements, and its concerns. • Treat the occasion with appropriate circumstance: it is both substantive and ceremonial. • Be clear and concise, but neither simple nor terse. • Speak from a prepared script, not off the cuff; resist embellishment or improvisation. • Reveal all that MSCHE allows and nothing that it proscribes.
ATTENDING THE MSCHE MEETING • Consult with the vice-president assigned to your review before the meeting, and heed his or her counsel during the meeting. • Prepare a thorough but concise oral presentation for the committee; do not summarize the entire report or otherwise ramble. • Participate fully in discussions of other institutions being reviewed in the same session. • Be rigorous in assessments and candid in comments.
