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Re: [Phys-l] Physics Program Reviews



I have had two experience with this type of thing. One experience struck me as reasonably good, and one was very bad.

For the good experience, I was on a team of three outside faculty members who spent a day reviewing a department at another private college similar in size to my institution. One of the other reviewers was from a private school a little larger than mine (and the institution being reviewed), and the third reviewer was from a larger state institution. The department got to choose the reviewers. I don't know if the administration had veto power or not, but the review team seemed a good mix, and we worked well with each other even though we had never met before.

John Denker commented that outside reviewers who come in for a short period of time cannot learn very much about the department such a short time. I agree with this, but I also think the review team I was part of was able get enough of a picture of the situation that we could give both positive comments as well as pointing out a few things that could be improved. I think we were also able to confirm to the administration that the reviewed department was basically doing good things. The department of course had also done a "self study" prior to our arrival, and that written study helped both the review team and the department.

For the bad experience... when we were suffering from a rather bad dean of academic affairs, he decided to force an outside review on us. But the dean chose the single reviewer with no input allowed from us. The chosen person happened to be a personal friend of the dean. The dean obviously had given the reviewer an agenda. When the written review was given to the department and administration, the department ended up writing a rebuttal that was longer than the review itself. Fortunately this occurred at a time when the board of trustees was becoming aware that the dean was no good, so the review was pretty much ignored.

It's not clear from Bob LaMontagne's post whether his administration has an agenda, and/or if the intentions are benevolent, malevolent, or neutral. Having been through one malevolent process, I can certainly say it was not pleasant. But having been a reviewer for another institution, and having that turn out well (from my viewpoint) I would not be inclined to say it served little purpose. If the department does its own self study, and then invites a team (of their own choosing) in for a day or two, I think you can learn some things that will prove helpful.

Michael D. Edmiston, PhD.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Chair, Division of Natural and Applied Sciences
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
Office 419-358-3270
Cell 419-230-9657

-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of LaMontagne, Bob
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 10:21 AM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: [Phys-l] Physics Program Reviews

This is basically addressed to those of you teaching in a college level physics program.

Have any of you had an outside agency or group of individuals come in and review your physics degree program. Did you use a group or agency that specialized in this service or did you just invite coleagues from another college or university?

We are being asked by our administration to review our program. We have been supplied very little in terms of guidance - the model the administration is using appears to be targeted at administrative departments instead of academic ones.

Since we have to do this, we would like to get the most value possible from the process. I would appreciate any recounting of experiences people have had with such reviews.

Bob at PC

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