Standard III – Design and Delivery of Student Learning Experience

Geneseo’s institutional values are embedded in the design and delivery of student learning experiences at the College. The curriculum reflects principles of inclusive excellence and seeks to empower students to engage with complex problems, situate themselves in local and global communities, and explore learning opportunities in and out of the classroom.

This Middle States review occurs at an inflection point for Geneseo. Amidst a year of challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, significant disruptions to our residential college model, and a painful national conversation about our continued struggle to confront racism, intolerance, and inequality, the college community approved a comprehensive proposal to revise the curriculum. Through an inclusive and multiyear process of investigation, discussion, and deliberation, in Spring 2021 the college embraced an approach to learning that is skills-centered; pushes students to engage critically with pressing issues in our world including diversity, power, and pluralism, global challenges and interconnections, sustainability, and scientific literacy; and asks students to intentionally integrate and apply their skills, knowledge, and experience to their work outside the classroom. This process reflects a broad commitment to practicing liberal learning in a public institution, to a teacher-scholar model of faculty work, and to meeting students’ need for a curriculum in which they see themselves and are empowered to engage with difficult problems.

1: Size and design of programs

(SIII.C1, RoA 9) Certificate, undergraduate, graduate, and/or professional programs leading to a degree or other recognized higher education credential, of appropriate length, designed to foster a coherent student learning experience and to promote synthesis of learning.

Geneseo’s curriculum is intentionally structured and academically challenging, with broad requirements tying various academic programs together in a single, coherent program of study.

The college’s baccalaureate degree requirements are outlined in the Undergraduate Bulletin.^[1] All students complete a minimum of 120 credits, including at least 45 credits at the 200 level or above and a minimum of 60-69 credits outside the major (the specific number depending on the program) or professional preparation area.^[2] Geneseo offers 50 undergraduate majors and eight graduate programs. All majors reflect institutional baccalaureate degree requirements with respect to number of credits, number of upper-division credits, and general education. Most programs at Geneseo offer a minor, and the college also supports 26 interdisciplinary minors.^[3] Enrollment and number of graduates in undergraduate programs are monitored regularly and posted publicly in the Fact Book.^[4]

Geneseo’s implementation of the DegreeWorks online audit system allows students to track their progress through all graduation requirements. This and other tools are discussed at greater length under Standard IV.

Program majors are developed and maintained at the department level, with oversight from campus governance and the associate provost for assessment and curriculum. Proposals for new major programs, substantive changes to the requirements (more than one third of the minimum credits), and changes to any School of Education program require additional approval by SUNY and/or the New York State Education Department (NYSED).^[5]

2: Student learning experiences

(SIII.C2, RoA 15) Student learning experiences that are designed, delivered, and assessed by faculty (full- or part-time) and/or other appropriate professionals who are rigorous and effective in teaching and assessment; qualified; sufficient in number; provided with and utilize opportunities and resources for professional growth; and regularly and equitably reviewed.

Beginning with the hiring process and extending through professional development opportunities and personnel evaluation processes, Geneseo intentionally cultivates a community of teacher-scholars who advance the college’s public liberal arts mission.

Faculty profile

Geneseo relies heavily on full-time faculty with terminal degrees in their field. As of Fall 2020, the College employed 233 full-time and 98 part-time faculty. Of the full-time faculty 211, or 90.6 percent, possess a terminal degree in their field; of the part-time faculty 35, or 35.7 percent, possess a terminal degree. Full-time tenure-track faculty generally teach nine credits and full-time lecturers 12 credits per semester; part-time faculty usually teach one or two courses per term. The college’s student/faculty ratio as of Fall 2020 was 18:1.^[6]

As of Fall 2020, 21 percent of the full-time faculty are persons of color, with 13 percent being Asian/Pacific Islander, one percent African American, four percent Latinx, and one percent multi-racial. Twelve percent of the part-time faculty are persons of color, with four percent being Asian/Pacific Islander, three percent African American, three percent Latinx, and two percent multi-racial. There are no Native American full-time or part-time faculty.^[7] Among the full-time faculty, 47 percent are female; among junior-ranked assistant professors and lecturers, 61 percent are female; and among more senior-ranked associate and full professors, 36 percent are female.^[8] Since the 2012 self-study, Geneseo has made strides in increasing the number and percentage of full-time faculty of color, from 14 percent in 2012 to 21 percent currently.

Faculty hiring

Since 2017, full-time faculty hiring has followed a provost-administered process in which chairs and deans submit a position request form that includes data regarding student/curricular need and documents how a particular hire supports strategic institutional goals. The provost reviews these requests and recommends positions for searches to the president’s cabinet for approval.^[9] Open positions are nationally advertised and appear on the college’s local job posting site. Candidates submit materials through the campus online employment system. All faculty searches follow the process outlined in the search committee checklist.^[10] Hiring committees are composed from the hiring department, with one extra-departmental member chosen in consultation with the provost’s office. Search committees are oriented to the process by the Department of Human Resources and develop evaluative criteria before candidate dossiers are open for review. All search committee members are apprised of their roles and responsibilities as evaluators of applicants’ credentials.^[11]

As of July 2019, all search committee chairs and at least 50 percent of committee members must have completed an equity-minded search practice professional development session conducted by the Office of Diversity and Equity. This critical training must be renewed every two years.^[12] As part of the search process, search committees must prepare evaluative criteria and interview questions before beginning the review of applications approved by the provost’s and human resources offices.^[13] Recommendations at each stage (preliminary interview, campus interview, and offer extension) are submitted by the search committee chair and approved by the department chair, affirmative action, and the provost’s office. Final decisions on hiring are approved by the president.

Geneseo participates in a SUNY-wide initiative called PRODiG, an acronym for Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth. PRODiG aims to increase the representation of historically underrepresented faculty at SUNY, including underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in general and women faculty of all races in STEM fields (WSTEM). The College has an approved PRODiG plan and is currently receiving support for six URM and WSTEM faculty (two cohorts). Campus support for PRODiG faculty includes onboarding, mentoring, and funding for conferences and professional development.^[14] Geneseo also participates in the related PRODiG fellowship consortium, which brings ABD and recent postdocs who are members of underrepresented minority groups or women in STEM fields to SUNY campuses for two years.^[15] PRODiG fellows have a reduced teaching load and receive mentoring and support for applying for tenure-track positions. Geneseo currently has two URM PRODiG fellows.

Fair and equitable faculty review processes

(SIII.C2.e)

Within SUNY, tenure is referred to as “continuing appointment.” Faculty are subject to evaluation at different points in the career cycle. The cycle of review is governed by the policies of the SUNY Board of Trustees and the contract.^[16] Criteria for different types of appointment and faculty rank are set by campus governance.^[17] In addition, each department generates discipline-specific criteria that are shared with the provost’s office and faculty personnel committee.^[18] The provost’s office provides annual professional development sessions for faculty undergoing personnel review and also maintains a document, “Processes and Procedures for Renewal of Term Appointments, Continuing Appointment, and Promotion,” that outlines all steps in personnel processes and is available on the College wiki.^[19]

The College’s personnel processes evaluate contributions to teaching (including classroom effectiveness, mentoring and advising of students, participation in high-impact teaching practices, and curricular development), scholarship, and service (departmental, college, professional, and—as relevant—public). Although promotion and continuing appointment dossiers are evaluated holistically, the College sets a benchmark that weights teaching at 50 percent, scholarship at 35 percent, and service at 15 percent. Department chairs and departmental personnel committees complete the Personnel Evaluation Report (PER) for tenure-track faculty, Lecturer Evaluation Report (LER) for term-appointed full-time faculty, and Adjunct Lecturer Evaluation Report (ALER) for term-appointed part-time faculty.^[20] Evaluators also review the numerical scores from the college-administered Student Opinion of Faculty Instruction (SOFI) survey and are required to conduct in-person teaching observations based on governance-approved processes and criteria.^[21]

For promotion and continuing appointment, department chair and department personnel committee evaluations are forwarded separately to the college’s Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC) and the provost; the recommendations of the FPC and provost are then submitted to the president, who makes the final decision.

Faculty at the College who demonstrate excellence in teaching, research, and service may receive special recognition by the SUNY system. Since 2016, multiple Geneseo faculty have received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.^[22] The SUNY Board of Trustees also recognizes faculty excellence through the SUNY distinguished faculty rank, including Distinguished Professor (held by three current Geneseo faculty), Distinguished Service Professor (held by three current faculty), and Distinguished Teaching Professor (held by nine current faculty).^[23]

Faculty activity reports

All full-time faculty submit an annual report of teaching and professional activities. Faculty report supervision of individualized education (e.g., directed studies, internships, and honors theses) and other high-impact learning opportunities (e.g., fieldwork, service learning, and international education). The provost’s office has access to these annual reports and chairs use them in compiling annual department reports.^[24]

Professional development

Geneseo offers professional development to faculty through several offices that regularly collaborate to meet the college’s strategic priorities. (For a discussion of the relationship between professional development and assessment, see Standard V, 3d.) Key professional development centers include:

Student Opinion of Faculty Instruction (SOFI)

The SOFI survey garners student feedback on quality of instruction.^[25] Administered online during the last two weeks of the semester, the SOFI includes demographic questions, questions about student level of engagement, and questions about instructor effectiveness. Students may submit qualitative comments. Faculty see numerical results and qualitative comments once final grades are submitted; they are strongly encouraged to submit the qualitative comments as part of any personnel evaluation. In 2019-2020, after several years of declining student participation in the SOFI, complaints about its effectiveness, and concerns about bias in student evaluations, the Faculty Affairs Committee of the College Senate introduced a resolution to revise and streamline the survey.^[26] In Fall 2020, the provost convened a learning community to take up several of the resolution’s recommendations. Revised SOFI questions were piloted in selected Spring 2021 courses with an eye toward rolling out a fully revised survey in Fall 2021. Four questions on the revised survey are specifically aimed at reducing bias.

3: Clarity and accuracy of program descriptions

(SIII,C3; RoA 10) Academic programs that are clearly and accurately described in official publications of the institution in a way that students are able to understand and follow degree and program requirements and expected time to completion.

Pathways to completion: Geneseo’s advisement system

Advancing student success is at the heart of the Geneseo learning experience. Geneseo structures advisement to ensure that students have equitable access to information about the curriculum, a variety of pathways to completion, and multiple opportunities to engage with trained advisors who can assist with navigating academic programs.

Geneseo’s online bulletin provides regularly updated information on undergraduate policies, overall requirements for graduation, and specific requirements for completing general education, majors, minors, and concentrations. The bulletin also includes sample program outlines with an eight-semester plan for program completion.^[27] The Guide to Graduate Studies provides similar information for students in the graduate programs of the School of Education and the School of Business.^[28] All students can see their progress toward completing degree requirements in the college’s degree-auditing system, DegreeWorks. DegreeWorks contains a “What If” feature that enables students to see how various decisions (including changing a major) would affect their requirements and progress.^[29] In Fall 2019, to assist students in understanding and complying with state and federal financial aid requirements on aidable courses, the College introduced “Students on Track,” a software tool that flags unaidable courses at the time of registration.^[30]

Every Geneseo student is assigned an advisor from the full-time faculty in their major program. Students who have not declared a major receive a faculty advisor in a department with capacity until declaring a major, at which time they are transferred to a faculty member in their major department. Students in the college’s Access Opportunity Programs (AOP) are assigned a staff advisor in addition to their faculty advisor; the former assists with academic success in general, including academic advisement. Students in the School of Business and the School of Education can receive guidance from a full-time professional advisor in addition to their faculty advisor. The Office of the Dean for Academic Planning and Advising (DAPA) plays a critical role in advisement, in part by providing a wealth of information and planning tools to students and advisors alike. For example, DAPA creates advisement preparation worksheets that help students and their advisors plan effectively.^{[31] [32]}

All students are encouraged to meet with their faculty advisor to plan coursework before registering for the upcoming semester; new transfer and first-year students are required to do so. Students who have completed 75 credits and at least 75 percent of their degree requirements must meet with their academic advisor for a pre-graduation check to plan the last several semesters of course work.^[33] The College uses registration holds to ensure that students with advisement requirements meet with an advisor before enrolling in classes.

4: Learning opportunities and resources

(SIII.C4; RoA 10) Sufficient learning opportunities and resources to support both the institution’s programs of study and students’ academic progress.

Geneseo offers students a wide range of opportunities to develop and explore their interests and a wealth of resources to support them in their learning. As an institution that particularly values community engagement, Geneseo has made integrative and applied learning a hallmark of the student experience. As explained further below under Criterion 5, our recently revised curriculum makes integrative and applied learning a requirement for all students.

Integrative and applied learning at Geneseo

Over the past decade, the College has stressed the importance of applying classroom-acquired skills to unstructured, independent problem-solving, as well as the power of such applied learning to help students discover and articulate coherence across their varied experiences within and beyond the classroom.

The Center for Integrative Learning (CIL), created in Fall 2018, has a broad mandate to advance community-facing, interdisciplinary, and reflective models of teaching, learning, and research, and to promote collaboration between the Division of Academic Affairs and other divisions.^[34] The CIL has come to play a key role in growing the college’s capacity in these areas through professional development and support for sustainable approaches to program creation.

Integrative and applied learning can take many forms at Geneseo. Below are some particularly noteworthy examples.

Student onboarding and support

The College provides a robust slate of first-year orientation experiences to acclimate students to higher education. Because the majority of the college’s new enrollees are on-campus students of traditional age, this work is critical and requires close cooperation between the academic affairs division (for advising and academic success programming) and the Division of Student and Campus Life (for orientation to student life, residential housing, health and well-being resources, etc.).

Once a student is accepted to Geneseo, DAPA works with them to schedule classes that meet major and general education requirements. With the schedule built, academic advisors meet with students remotely to discuss courses and demonstrate self-service advisement tools such as DegreeWorks. Until Fall 2019, first-year students participated in a two-day, mid-summer orientation that included a residential experience, introduction to campus resources, health and safety programming, and academic advisement. With the cancellation of in-person orientation for Fall 2020, the College shifted to having new students participate in a residential orientation during the week before classes begin.^[42] DAPA now works with trained faculty advisors to develop schedules for students over the summer based on their declared major, general education requirements, and a survey of interests.

Geneseo offers a broad range of services intended to support students academically and personally. For the past several years, the College has increasingly emphasized the common themes of resiliency, growth mindset, and holistic attention to student well-being. Close collaboration between the academic affairs and student and campus life divisions seeks to connect institutional efforts to support the whole student and ensure equitable access to services. A comprehensive listing of strategic priorities in student support services can be found in the Evidence Inventory.^[43]

Efforts to support students from historically excluded groups

A major strategic focus for the College has been narrowing the equity gap for low-income and BIPOC students and ensuring that support services focus on equitable outcomes. In addition to the suite of programs housed in AOP (EOP, TRIO-SSS, and TRIO-McNair), the college also supports several STEM-specific inclusion programs.^[44]

Since 2016, Geneseo has supported the GROW-STEM (Geneseo Reaching Out to Women and under-represented groups in STEM) program, which provides focused mentoring and networking activities to women and underrepresented students majoring in STEM fields.^[45] Building on the momentum produced by GROW-STEM, in December 2017, Geneseo successfully applied for a $220,000 SUNY Performance Improvement Fund (PIF) grant to develop a STEM inclusion program in biology, the college’s largest major. In August 2020, the College received notice of a new, five-year NSF S-STEM (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Track 2 award. The G-STEMS program will support low-income, academically talented STEM students with demonstrated financial need.^[46]

COVID-19 responses

The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges for Geneseo as a primarily residential campus. Following the emergency suspension of face-to-face operations in March 2020, the campus engaged in intensive planning during the summer of 2020 based on guidance from federal, state, and system authorities as well as the campus’ COVID-19 Incident Leadership Team (CVILT). For matters directly related to the student learning experience, the provost’s office, in consultation with governance leaderships, convened the Academic Experience Planning Team (AEPT) and the Online Learning Steering Committee, which identified critical needs and priorities, particularly with respect to offering courses in hybrid or online modalities, classroom management, accessibility, temporary policy revisions, and education of students, faculty, and staff on success strategies. These recommendations were delegated to the appropriate offices during the summer or passed through governance review when major policy revisions were required.^[47] Through the summer, the TLC, CIT, and CDL offered online professional development opportunities for faculty on pedagogical best practices in different teaching modalities, and the provost’s office initiated a regular cadence of communication to faculty and chairs to ensure broad awareness of the evolving situation and campus plans. The College assessed pandemic responses in Spring 2020 through the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium COVID-19 Institutional Response Student Survey and also participated in SUNY’s Student Remote Instruction Survey.^[48] In addition, many departments continued to survey students independently throughout the year to gauge student needs and track student experiences.

Outcomes: retention and graduation rates

Under Standard V, Criterion 3g, we provide detailed assessment data on student success outcomes, including graduation and retention rates. At Geneseo, four- and six-year graduation rates have traditionally been strong. The college’s four-year graduation rate was ranked ninth in the nation for highly-residential public institutions by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2020.^[49] However, as noted below, the college’s retention rates declined which impacts the graduation rate. Over the past five years, the six year graduation rate decreased from 81 percent with the 2010 cohort to 78 percent with the 2014 cohort.

Improving first-year retention has been a significant institutional priority since 2017, a response to the recent dip in first-year retention from a high-water mark of 92 percent in 2009 to a low of 84 percent in 2018.^[50] To address this decline, in December 2017, Provost Robertson created the Wildly Important Goal (WIG) project, a cross-divisional initiative to concentrate efforts on improving first-year retention. This group met weekly from January 2018 through December 2019, aiming to increase the retention rate of first-year, first-time-to-college students from 86 percent to 88 percent by October 2019. The group identified specific projects (often ones that did not have a clear home or institutional owner), tasked members with reporting weekly on progress, and kept an institutional scoreboard of achievements. Although the project fell short of the 88 percent retention rate goal, it was successful in installing several initiatives that have had a measurable impact on student success^[51] and that we expect to produce improved retention in the future.

The library as resource

Geneseo’s Milne Library received the 2018 Award for Excellence in Academic Libraries from the Association of College and Research Libraries for its innovative approach to services. Milne is home to the award-winning IDS Project, an innovative model of library cooperation for effective resource sharing, promoting community engagement, staff development, best practices, and research and development.

Currently under renovation, the Milne Library building is anticipated to re-open by the 2024-25 academic year. In the interim, the library provides services through its temporary home in Fraser Hall.

Library Quick Facts:

• The library collection includes hundreds of licensed databases, journals, ebooks and streaming films as well as tens of thousands of print books and musical scores.
• The library’s Information Delivery Services (IDS) provide access to millions of books and articles held by other libraries around the world.
• The College Archives and Special Collections include the Rare Book “X” Collection, Genesee Valley Historical Collection, Wadsworth Family Papers (1790-1950), and Carl F. Schmidt Collection in Historical Architecture. Smaller compilations include the Martha Blow Wadsworth Photography Collection, the Walter Harding Collection, and an extensive collection of works by and about Aldous Huxley.
• The Teacher Education Resource Center (TERC) collection is home to curricular and instructional materials, thousands of juvenile and Young Adult fiction and nonfiction works, curriculum guides, teaching handbooks, manipulatives, and textbooks to support the School of Education’s elementary, secondary, and special education programs.
• Six research instruction librarians and a technology instructor partner with teaching faculty from all departments to teach information and digital literacy skills and provide consultation services to students and faculty.
• The library supports a growing number of digital publishing projects, including open-access textbooks, works about local history, and scholarly and creative works authored by Geneseo students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

5: General education program

(Std III.C5, RoA 9) A general education program that offers a sufficient scope to draw students into new areas of intellectual experience, expanding cultural and global awareness and cultural sensitivity, and preparing them to make well-reasoned judgments outside as well as within their academic field; offers a curriculum designed so that students acquire and demonstrate essential skills including oral and written communication, scientific and quantitative reasoning, critical analysis and reasoning, technological competency, and information literacy. Consistent with mission, the general education program also includes the study of values, ethics, and diverse perspectives.

In 2016, the college adopted a skills-based framework for undergraduate education, Geneseo Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education (GLOBE). After a multi-year process of campus study, discussion, and deliberation, in 2021 campus governance approved a proposal to implement the GLOBE framework through a complete redesign of the curriculum, including general education. The new curriculum, A Geneseo Education for a Connected World, will take effect in Fall 2022.

The college’s existing general education program consists of one course each in numeric/symbolic reasoning, basic communication, US history, Western civilization/humanities, and other world civilizations; two courses each in laboratory natural science, social science, and fine arts; and proficiency in American Sign Language or a language other than English through the second elementary (102) level. The program occupies between 30 and 52 credits of the 120 required for an undergraduate degree, depending on how the language proficiency is demonstrated and the number of courses used to satisfy two requirements simultaneously.

The student who completes Geneseo’s general education program also satisfies, and indeed surpasses, the SUNY General Education Requirement (SUNYGER), which contains the same categories but allows most to be fulfilled with a single course.^[52]

Learning outcomes for college general education courses follow SUNY’s Guidelines for the Approval of State University General Education Requirement Courses with approved local modifications.^[53] Each requirement in general education carries its set of governance-approved learning outcomes.^[54]

Although elements of the existing program provide opportunities for students to acquire global awareness and cultural sensitivity, the new, GLOBE-based curriculum foregrounds these capacities through five new requirements organized under the heading “Participation in a Global Society.” The new requirements, each with its own learning outcomes, are Diversity, Pluralism, and Power; World Cultures and Values; Contemporary Global Challenges; Creativity and Innovation; and Sustainability. The curriculum’s attention to ethical considerations is evident not only in the explicit reference to “values” and the ethical outlook implicit in “sustainability,” but also in an additional requirement that the course used for Diversity, Pluralism, and Power must contain antiracist content.

To meet the five new requirements, students must choose at least one course from each of three disciplinary areas: social sciences, the humanities, and the arts. In addition, all students must complete coursework ensuring scientific, mathematical, and information literacy; competency in oral and written communication; proficiency in a language other than English; and fluency with digital technology.

The student who completes A Geneseo Education for a Connected World beginning Fall 2021 will continue to satisfy and surpass SUNYGER, but with less redundancy and fewer credits, leaving more room to explore minors, additional majors, free electives, and microcredentials.

Mapping GLOBE: The path to the new curriculum

In March 2016, the College Senate endorsed GLOBE “as a framework for the redesign of the student experience at Geneseo.”^[55] In February 2017, President Battles and the College Senate established the Curricular Design Working Group (CDWG). The primary charge to CDWG was to propose a new curricular structure in alignment with GLOBE.^[56]

During its first two years, CDWG gathered campus feedback, explored models at other campuses, investigated SUNYGER constraints, and pursued professional development through participation in an AAC&U summer institute (2017) and conferences. During Fall 2019, CDWG was reconstituted into three subcommittees. The curriculum tagging subcommittee completed an inventory of all courses, identifying where in the curriculum students have opportunities to develop GLOBE’s set of Intellectual and Practical Skills (IPS); the integrative and applied Learning (IAL) subcommittee developed a proposal for making completion and documentation of an IAL experience a graduation requirement; and the governance subcommittee reviewed local and peer curricular governance bodies, policies, and procedures with an eye toward revising existing general education governance and oversight structures to match the revised curriculum.

By the end of Fall 2019, the college-wide tagging inventory was completed, guided by locally-developed rubrics that were inspired by AAC&U’s LEAP VALUE rubrics. Eight-six percent of courses contained in the then-current Undergraduate Bulletin were tagged.^[57] Tagging data informed subsequent discussions of general education curricular structures in the subcommittee and full CDWG. At the same time, the integrative and applied learning subcommittee completed its draft proposal.^[58]

During Fall 2020, the curriculum tagging subcommittee drafted a proposal for a revised curricular model.^[59] A period of open forums and online comment opportunities followed, after which the proposal was revised, presented to campus stakeholders with an extensive FAQ, and submitted to the College Senate.^[60] During the public comment and revision phase, the SUNY provost’s General Education Advisory Committee (GEAC) issued a report outlining proposals for broad revisions to SUNYGER, which necessitated additional review and revisions of the CDWG proposals.^[61] Upon completion of this interactive cycle of feedback and revision, in Spring 2021 a finalized proposal for revision of the undergraduate curriculum proceeded through the regular governance channels, and after several floor revisions, the proposal passed second reading on May 10, 2021.^[62] The College is committed to an additional year of implementation, with operational changes to the general education curriculum and associated governance structures moving through campus governance during the 2021-22 academic year, with a full transition complete for students entering the college in Fall 2022. This change, when fully implemented, will represent the most significant modification to Geneseo’s curriculum in almost four decades.

6: Graduate and professional programs

(S III.C6) Opportunities for the development of research, scholarship, and independent thinking, provided by faculty and/or other professionals with credentials appropriate to graduate-level curricula.

Geneseo offers a small number of master’s-level graduate programs in the School of Business (SOB) and the School of Education (SOE). Most programs are offered for full-time or part-time students, with courses generally scheduled in the late afternoon and evening. Internship and other field placement courses usually require students to be enrolled on a full-time basis for the duration of the internship. The accounting program graduates 15-20 students per year, and the education programs tend to graduate 35-50 students per year.^[63]

MS in Accounting

Geneseo’s MS in Accounting program is approved for New York State CPA licensure. It is accredited through the general accreditation of the School of Business by the premier business school accrediting body, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Accreditation means that the program complies with regulatory requirements and conforms to AACSB’s best practices.^[64] AACSB offers accreditation specific to accounting programs, but Geneseo lacks the resources to pursue it.

AACSB requires Assurance of Learning (AOL). The SOB’s robust assessment process meets the AACSB requirement for AOL. All faculty participate in “closing the loop” discussions each semester, and adopt follow up actions. Changes in the MS program proceed under governance structures. At the formal level, changes to the program are reviewed by both the SOB and the College, and submitted by the college’s Graduate Academic Affairs Committee to a vote in the College Senate. Subsequent review by SUNY, NYSED, or Middle States may be required, as has been the case with the proposal for online delivery of a part of the MS.

Most courses in the program are taught by full-time Geneseo faculty who also teach in other SOB programs. Two MS courses are taught by long-term adjuncts who have specialized knowledge in their teaching area. Each of these practitioners has senior-level professional experience, a CPA license, and other professional certifications. The director of the MS is a full-time faculty member with a course reallocation. In the planned online MS program, students will participate in traditional face-to-face classes during the fall semester, and have the option of participating via remote connection in spring classes.

Two courses in the MS curriculum emphasize the solution of unstructured accounting problems through the process of researching, interpreting, and applying professional standards, and communicating the basis for selecting that guidance. Assignments stress all phases of professional accounting research: knowledge acquisition, application, and communication.

School of Education graduate programs

In April 2020, The School of Education received full national accreditation from the Council for the Accreditation for Educator Preparation (CAEP) for both its initial (undergraduate) and advanced (graduate) programs. This accreditation will be active through 2027.^[65]

The SOE offers five MS programs: four Adolescence Education programs (with certification in English, French, Social Studies, and Spanish) and a Teaching of Reading and Literacy (Birth-Grade 12) program.

Changes in the SOE master’s programs are reviewed by the SOE and approved by governance via the Graduate Academic Affairs Committee and the College Senate. Subsequent review by SUNY and NYSED is required. Full-time SOE faculty teach most courses in the programs, with some regular adjuncts filling gaps as needed. A graduate liaison oversees the graduate programs and reaches out to other departments on campus to offer content-based coursework. SOE conducts regular assessment of its programs.

All SOE graduate programs require a culminating experience and a research project. Students in the literacy program also have the opportunity to work with children in two separate reading clinics.

7: Third-party providers

(SIII.C7) Adequate and appropriate institutional review and approval on any student learning opportunities designed, delivered, or assessed by third-party providers.

With the exception of transfer courses and study abroad programs hosted at partner institutions, Geneseo is directly responsible for the design, delivery, and assessment of its student learning opportunities, with credited academic experiences associated with a college faculty member of record who is responsible for supervising the student experience.

Transfer and cross-registration

Geneseo accepts up to 60 credits from two-year colleges, up to 90 credits from four-year colleges, and up to 45 credit hours from college coursework taken in high school through an accredited college or university. Students may receive up to 30 credits for non-liberal-arts courses for which Geneseo has no equivalent, such as technical subjects and courses in human services. Students must take at least 30 credits at Geneseo and meet all requirements for the bachelor’s degree. The College only accepts transfer courses from accredited institutions. Geneseo students are also welcome to cross-register for courses at other SUNY campuses as long as those courses are not offered at Geneseo.^[66]

Study abroad

Geneseo has forged partnerships with universities around the world through bilateral exchange or one-directional study abroad agreements. All partnership agreements are drafted using a template provided by the SUNY Office of General Counsel. Agreements are negotiated by the director of the study abroad office and the partner abroad. The process of establishing or renewing a partnership agreement includes gathering evidence or affirmation of the partner institution’s accreditation, academic review conducted in collaboration with the academic departments and the provost’s office, review by institutional risk management and legal counsel, and signature by the SUNY Geneseo president. All partnership agreements are submitted to the SUNY Office of Global Affairs for signature by the vice chancellor for global affairs.^[67]

Geneseo requires all students who study abroad at a partner institution or through another SUNY study abroad program to complete a course approval form. Courses in a student’s major field or concentration must be approved by the relevant department chair. For general education or elective credit, courses must be approved by DAPA. Credits earned at a partner institution during the academic year or a summer term are treated as transfer credits by the home institution. For Geneseo students, grades earned for these credits do not count toward a Geneseo student’s GPA. A student handbook provides complete information on study abroad transfer policies.^[68]

8: Assessment

(SIII.C8; RoA 8, 9, 10) Periodic assessment of the effectiveness of programs providing student learning opportunities.

Below, we discuss key features of academic program assessment. Comprehensive treatment of assessment at Geneseo, including assessment of major programs and general education, will be found under Standard V.)

Academic program assessment

All academic programs at Geneseo conduct annual assessment of student learning. General education area committees conduct assessment of student learning on a three-year rotation. Programs use the Geneseo wiki to share assessment reports with the campus community.

The Academic Program Assessment Committee (APAC) meets regularly to review academic program assessment. The committee uses a rubric to assess the quality of program assessment and provides iterative feedback to programs on assessment processes. APAC maintains a list of department and school assessment coordinators, assists with training these coordinators on their responsibilities, and tracks annual report completion with the assistance of the associate provost for assessment and curriculum.

Program review process

In general, academic programs conduct program review on a five-year cycle approved by campus governance. (The schools of business and education follow a timeline and procedures set by their external accrediting bodies.) In the fall of its review year, a program writes a self-study. The self-study may examine the program in its entirety or, with the provost’s approval, a particular area of concern. Self-study committees include a chair and faculty from the program, at least one student from the program, and two faculty from outside the program (one in a related field and one in an area considerably removed from the one being evaluated). In consultation with the self-study committee, the provost’s office identifies two external reviewers to read the self-study and conduct a site visit in the spring semester. The external reviewers’ report is presented to the provost’s office, which works with a program to “review the…report and the evaluators’ comments and develop a written follow-up plan of action to be taken up by the Department/Program and the Administration.”^[69] The provost’s office often provides resources in support of program review recommendations.

Under Standard V, Criteria 3b and 3c, we discuss specific examples of actions taken by departments as a result of program assessment and review.

New and revised programs

Since 2017, a number of new academic programs have been fully approved by campus governance, SUNY, and NYSED.^[70] These include BA programs in women’s and gender studies, sociomedical sciences, and sustainability studies; BA and BS degrees in individualized studies; an MS program in adolescence education – special education, and a BPS program in musical theatre. BS programs in finance and data analytics are in the pipeline and awaiting full approval.

The College has approved substantive revisions to a number of programs in this period, including undergraduate programs in american studies; biology (BA and BS); art history; music; physics and applied physics; anthropology; economics; history; history with adolescence education – social studies; geological sciences; French; French with adolescence education; spanish; spanish with adolescence education; philosophy; and accounting. We have also received approval for a change in accreditation status for our first distance education program, the MS in accounting.

Conclusion

Learning experiences at Geneseo are rigorous and coherent at all degree levels and in all modalities. All learning experiences are consistent with higher education expectations.

Points of pride

Adoption of a new framework for a baccalaureate education based on GLOBE (Geneseo Learning Outcomes for a Baccalaureate Education) that includes new learning outcomes ascribed to majors, a new framework for general education aligned with SUNY’s new general education requirements, and a new integrative and applied learning requirement.

Suggestions

As part of the implementation of the integrative and applied learning graduation requirement, the college should pay particular attention to the assessment of equitable access to different types of opportunities.

The new curriculum ideally will push students to think about and articulate connections between different types of learning experiences (including those that occur outside of the traditional classroom). As the college introduces the new curriculum to students, care should be taken to ensure that advising does not default into a “check off the box” approach that deprioritizes this important integration and synthesis. As the new curriculum is implemented, it would be worthwhile to consider ways to make integration a key part of training for faculty and staff who provide advice (broadly defined) to students and more visible in college showcases of student work.

Recommendations

With college approval of the new framework for general education complete as of Spring 2021, Geneseo should conclude the implementation process during the 2021-22 academic year. This will include review and revision (if needed) of existing curricular governance structures to meet the needs of the new framework, ensuring alignment of the local curricular requirements with forthcoming changes to SUNYGER, and installing ongoing assessment mechanisms for the new general education curriculum, program-based components of GLOBE, and the integrative and applied learning graduation requirement.