Foreword
Overview
Established by act of the New York State legislature in 1867 as the Wadsworth Normal and Training School, and opened in 1871 as the Geneseo Normal and Training School, SUNY Geneseo became an original campus of the State University of New York at the system’s birth in 1948.
Geneseo’s location in the scenic Genesee River valley, in the historic homelands of the Seneca Nation of Indians and Tonawanda Seneca Nation, less than an hour from the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, is an important part of its identity. So, too, is its commitment to serving the local region. At the same time, Geneseo’s story is one of consistent expansion in both geographic reach and reputational aspiration. In the decades immediately following its inception as SUNY Geneseo, the College developed strong liberal arts and sciences programs and added several professional curricula to its offerings. The first master’s degrees were awarded in 1951. In 1962, the teachers’ colleges of the state university became colleges of arts and science. Geneseo implemented four-year degree programs in arts and science in 1964. In 1980, the School of Business was established.
That same year, Geneseo adopted a core curriculum marked by extensive required coursework in natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and fine arts. Growing over time to include such additional requirements as language, first-year writing, non-western traditions, and numeric and symbolic reasoning, Geneseo’s core curriculum became another key aspect of its identity, helping lead to the college’s membership in the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) beginning in 1994. COPLAC, founded in 1987, advocates for high-quality student-centered residential public liberal arts education; its 29 member institutions are among the most distinguished in the state systems they serve.
By the turn of the millennium, Geneseo had achieved a reputation as the unofficial flagship among SUNY’s 13 four-year liberal arts colleges. Yet in the conclusion of our 2001 self-study for Middle States accreditation, we declared ourselves “restless on our laurels”: committed to continual institutional renewal in response to ever evolving educational best practices and in anticipation of a challenging future for academia.
Twenty years onward, and 150 years since we first opened our doors, our unflagging commitment to institutional renewal is playing out in a sweeping overhaul of Geneseo’s curriculum, the largest such re-imagining in two generations. Geneseo’s new curriculum will help students integrate knowledge and skills across disciplines and connect what they learn to enduring and contemporary issues; put their learning to the test in real-world situations; and understand their undergraduate experience as but one aspect of the larger challenge of designing a purposeful life within and beyond a career. And it is playing out in our adoption of a refreshed mission statement, and a new articulation of our core values, in language reflecting the input of 1,100 members of the campus community—language that will inform the drafting of a new five-year strategic plan.
Of course, our commitment to renewal is also playing out at a time of unprecedented challenge for higher education itself, a time marked by disruption—both demographic and economic—and the looming presence of a disease not yet tamed. This self-study documents the strengths that are enabling us to meet this challenge, even as it identifies areas where continued evolution will be necessary to preserve and enhance the identity we have worked so hard to create.
Self-study process
Leaders, steering committee, working groups
Geneseo’s self-study process began in Fall 2019. Director of Institutional Research Julie Rao was named ALO and was appointed to co-chair the process with SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Physics Kurt Fletcher and Interim Associate Provost for Assessment and Curriculum Melanie Blood. All three attended the Middle States Self-Study Institute. The co-chairs drafted institutional priorities and engaged the campus in discussion around their adoption through a town hall, a presentation to the cabinet and college council, and targeted emails. The final version of the five institutional priorities align with our strategic plan’s focus areas and objectives.
Institutional priorities and outcomes
- To improve student success (as measured by recruitment, retention, graduation rates, graduate school placement and employment rates, wellbeing, and an enriching life);
- To capitalize on curricular opportunities and challenges (easing the path for transfer students, developing selected new programs and innovating in existing programs, strengthening master’s programs, benefiting from and integrating online education into curriculum);
- To encourage, support, and document robust curricular and co-curricular transformational and integrative learning experiences;
- To enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion and foster an inclusive campus climate and sense of belonging at Geneseo;
- To increase financial, environmental, and social sustainability.
The co-chairs also drafted six outcomes for the self-study process, as instructed at the Middle States Self-Study Institute.
- Our accreditation will be reaffirmed.
- The whole SUNY Geneseo community will be engaged in the self-study process.
- The links between assessment and action plans at various levels within the institution will be strengthened.
- The implementation of GLOBE (Geneseo Learning Outcomes for a Baccalaureate Education) as developed by CDWG (Curriculum Design Working Group) and the college senate will be supported across the entire undergraduate experience.
- A clearer understanding of the challenges and opportunities (both internal and external) we currently face as an institution will be developed, in collaboration with the Strategic Planning Group, to help inform the development of our next strategic framework.
- Potential models to improve financial sustainability will be reviewed in light of the anticipated radical drop in the college age demographic.
Steering committee
While discussing institutional priorities and outcomes with various stakeholders, the self-study co-chairs identified co-chairs for each standard who would gather data and write the chapter for that standard. They formed a steering committee composed of the standard co-chairs, two individuals for the Requirements of Affiliation, a librarian, and a member of the computing and information technology department.
| Steering Committee Membership | ||
| Person | Department | Role/Standard |
| Melanie Blood | Provost’s Office, Associate Provost for Assessment and Curriculum; Professor of English and Music; Coordinator of Women’s and Gender Studies | Co-Chair; SI-Mission and Goals |
| Kurt Fletcher | Physics and Astronomy, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor; Vice Chair, College Senate (19-20); Past Chair, Undergraduate Policy Committee | Co-Chair: SI-Mission and Goals |
| Julie Rao | Institutional Research, Director; Accreditation Liaison Officer | Co-Chair: SI-Mission and Goals |
| Paul Jackson | Computing and Information Technology, Associate Director | Technical Lead |
| Brandon West | Library, Head of Research Instruction Services | Evidence Archivist |
| robbie routenberg | Office of Diversity and Equity, Chief Diversity Officer | SII-Ethics & Integrity, co-chair |
| Monique Patenaude | Director of Media Relations | SII-Ethics & Integrity, co-chair |
| Joseph Cope | Provost’s Office, Associate Provost for Academic Success | SIII-Student Learning Experience, co-chair |
| Lisa Meyer | Sociology, Associate Professor | SIII-Student Learning Experience, co-chair |
| Celia Easton | Academic Planning and Advising, Dean and English, Professor | SIV-Support of Student Learning, co-chair |
| Charles, “Chip” Matthews | Student Life, Senior Director | SIV-Support of Student Learning, co-chair |
| Sara Irizarry | School of Education, Coordinator of Assessment and Accreditation | SV-Educational Effectiveness Assessment, co-chair |
| Paul Schacht | English, Professor; Center for Digital Learning, Director | SV-Educational Effectiveness Assessment, co-chair |
| Enrico Johnson | Provost’s Office, Assistant Provost | SVI-Planning & Resources, co-chair |
| Michael Mooney | Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation, Director | SVI-Planning & Resources, co-chair |
| Sue Chichester | Computing and Information Technology, Director | SVII-Governance & Leadership, co-chair |
| James McLean | Physics and Astronomy, Professor; University Faculty Senator, Past Senate Chair | SVII-Governance & Leadership, co-chair, |
| Glenn Geiser-Getz | Provost’s Office, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs | Requirements for Affiliation and Verification of Compliance |
| Wendi Kinney | President’s Office, Senior Associate to the President | Requirements for Affiliation and Verification of Compliance |
| Adam Hansen | SA President, through May 2020 | Student Member |
| Laura Benjamin | Student Association VP, starting May 2020-2021; President 2021-22 | Student Member |
President Battles appointed the steering committee members to terms extending through the Middle States team visit in Spring 2022. The first tasks of the steering committee were to refine the institutional outcomes and staff the working groups, with broad representation for faculty, staff, and students who together had the expertise to address all parts of each criterion of the standard.
The steering committee has met monthly since the spring semester of 2020, starting with a kickoff event in person, and, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing with monthly Zoom meetings since March 2020. The steering committee determined the process for gathering evidence, turning documents into accessible pdfs, sharing information among ourselves and the campus, and producing the final self-study document. The co-chairs recommended the following time-table for the working groups:
- Finalize working group membership: Mid-spring 2020
- Outline of chapter due, including where evidence may be found: End of Spring 2020
- Gather evidence and work on chapter: Fall 2020
- First draft of chapter: Mid-spring 2021
- Second readers respond to primary authors of each chapter: Late spring 2021
- Co-chairs edit for completeness, look for duplication, evidence: Early summer 2021
- Cabinet invited to read and edit relevant sections of chapters: Late summer 2021
- Paul Schacht edit of all chapters for consistency, clarity, style: September 2021
- Complete draft provided to campus, president, and team chair: October 4, 2021
- Team chair visit: October 18, 2021
- Revisions to self-study based on feedback from campus constituents and team chair: February 15, 2022
- Final draft compiled and shared with all MSCHE team members: February 2022
There will be several additional steps in 2021-22 to engage the entire campus community in the self-study process. Following the release of the self-study draft on October 4, and before the team chair’s visit, two town hall meetings were held for the entire community: one in person on October 13 (during the all-college hour) and one via Zoom on October 14. Steering committee members presented briefly on each chapter draft, followed by open discussion. After the team chair’s visit, we shared her feedback to our self-study draft with various groups. We expect to involve the campus community in various ways during the team’s visit in April and will ultimately share the results of the completed accreditation process.
Institutional outcomes one and two
The steering committee has taken primary responsibility for the self-study’s first two institutional outcomes:
- Our accreditation will be affirmed.
- The whole SUNY Geneseo community will be engaged in the self-study process.
The steering committee has ensured that the entire self-study and re-accreditation process remains on schedule and adheres to our Middle States approved self-study design. In the working group for each standard, the committee has ensured broad representation of diverse campus constituencies as appropriate to that standard. The committee has also managed a two-way communication plan throughout the self-study process. Broadly representative of campus constituencies themselves, committee members have used their own spheres of influence to engage campus stakeholders in conversation about the self-study.
It should be noted that chapter one (Standard I – Mission and Goals) addresses Requirement of Affiliation 7 in its entirety, demonstrating that the college has a mission and goals approved by the governing body, and addresses some aspects of Requirement of Affiliation 10, demonstrating the links among mission and goals, assessment, and educational and institutional improvement, including some resource allocation.