Academic Planning Council
2017 Fall Retreat Overview
Purpose and Duties of the APC
All UW-System campuses are required to review their academic programs and report their findings to UW-System Administration and to faculty governance bodies. The following excerpt was taken from the University of Wisconsin System – Academic Information Series – Academic Planning and Program Review, April 2010.
Cyclic Review of Existing Academic Programs and Academic Support Programs
Each institution is responsible for comprehensive and intensive re-examination of all academic programs and academic support programs. Each institution shall place all programs on a regular review schedule. In general, a cyclic review of an academic program by the institution should parallel the review that is required for the final authorization of new programs and should give consideration to the items considered in a joint review of academic programs. The general purposes of the institutional review are to:
· Determine whether the program is meeting its goals and objectives. Also assess how well the program contributes to meeting state, regional, or national needs.
· Examine the relationship of the program to other academic programs of the institution and the institution’s mission. This includes considering the priority of the program within the institution and the effect of the program on other programs of the institution.
· Assess the level of quality attained by the program. This may include an examination of the quality of the instructional staff, enrollments, the curriculum, academic support services and external evaluations.
· Determine the resource implications of continuing this program.
If you would like to see the duties of the APC, you can find them in the Faculty Constitution and Bylaws, Article III, Section 2. Basically, Faculty Senate charged the APC with the responsibility of short-term and long-term academic planning. To this end, the APC developed a review process to provide the information and the tools required for such planning. The same information is used to report back to system. The two main tools that the APC uses for short-term and long-term academic planning and for reporting back to UW-System are an annual report and an in-depth review. This year the fall retreat focuses on completing the in-depth reviews of the following programs:
GROUP 42016-2018
2022-2024 / 1. Biology
2. Chemistry
3. Economics
4. Philosophy (will move to Group 2 after this cycle)
5. Political Science
6. Psychology
7. Sociology
8. *Industrial Studies (holdover from Group 3; awaiting AOC review.)
9. *Soil & Crop Science (late submission from Group 3)
In-Depth Review
Each academic program undergoes an in-depth review every 6 years. The in-depth review occurs over a period of two years and requires programs to complete Form B. Last year, parts of Form B were reviewed by the Assessment Oversight Committee (AOC), and the Academic Standards Committee (ASC). Each of these committees made recommendations to the APC based on their section of Form B. Programs had the opportunity to respond to each recommendation. This year, it’s time for the APC to review all these documents and make a recommendation for Group 4. The original reports (Form B), the evaluations of the reports by ASC and AOC, and the programs’ response to evaluations (if any) are stored on the s-drive at S:\WGroups\Academic_Planning_Council\APC Retreats\APC Fall 2017 Retreat. Completing all the academic program reviews in each cycle requires a block of time that we are not afforded during the semester. Consequently, we use the fall retreat as an opportunity to focus solely on the review of academic programs.
Tentative Agenda for the Retreat
Tentative Agenda for the APC Retreat
Monday, August 28 from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
MPSC Computer Conference room
11:00 - 11:10 Welcome and Overview of the APC duties & pending business
11:10 - 11:20 Overview of the Form A process
11:20 - 11:50 Lessons Learned from Media Studies Suspension Process (Hagen)
11:50 - 1:30 Breakout to draft program reviews and working lunch
1:30 - 2:00 Whole-Group Discussion of draft program reviews
In the breakout period, we will split into 2 groups. These small groups will begin the process of drafting the APC reports that will eventually be sent to UW System. During the whole-group discussion, each group will summarize their findings to the other group(s). Please note that the retreat is for discussion purposes only. We will vote on the recommendations later in the academic year.
Prior to the Retreat
Please read each program’s Form B, each evaluation sheet, and each response to the evaluation. These documents can be found at
S:\WGroups\Academic_Planning_Council\APC Retreats\APC Fall 2017 Retreat
and then under the subfolders named
· Form B Program Self Reviews FINAL
· Form B AOC reports FINAL** (Note: AOC has not voted on the reviews yet, so these documents are not present at this time! We’ll discuss this at the retreat.)
· Form B ASC reports FINAL
You will also want to look at the template for the APC report, which is in the Form B APC reports DRAFT folder. If you want to see how completed APC reports look, you can see drafts in the folders for prior years’ retreats, or you can navigate to S:\Academic_Planning_Council\APC - FORM B FINAL Documents.
Be prepared to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each program. If you will not be in attendance, I will ask you to send me a list of strengths and weakness of a subset of the programs.
Thank you for your willingness to serve on this important but time-intensive committee.
Susan Hansen & Andrew Pawl (APC Co-Chairs)