In the cover letter to President Levine from Donald Warren, Professor of Education at Indiana University, the "First Reviewer" of the Middle States Periodic Review Report (PRR), wrote, "You and your colleagues are doing good work, as usual."

Reflecting on the College's mission and academic reorganization the report said, "One understanding reached early on, enabled the college to avoid choosing between the graduate and professional school models. Several peer institutions had fallen into this tempting dichotomy. Teachers College elected to pursue a more nuanced thrust, and the commitment proved to be conceptually liberating."

In discussing the "Organization and Administration of the College," the report stated, "attention has been paid to the ways that finance, academic affairs, and development intersect and support each other to advance the college's mission. Technological upgrades have been introduced and new facilities established. Improvements in the areas of student services and library planning are notable. Both had concerned the evaluation team in 1997. The administration now appears sufficiently structured and staffed to provide the budget management and the development capacities the college requires to support its academic and professional mission."

The report also noted progress in the area of governance. "Responsibilities of department chairs continue to evolve, a process critical to the success of the mission and program reviews underway in the newly configured academic units."

In reviewing "Students and Student Enrollments," the report noted "newly focused operations and added technological resources that enable staff to deliver, monitor, coordinate, and assess the wide spectrum of student services." The report did add, however, that the "site-team heard complaints from students, as well as faculty and staff, about uneven or absent attention to this area." It goes on to say, "In addressing these concerns structurally, the college seems determined to provide reliable services and to establish policy frameworks for promoting enrollments while achieving diversity within the student body."

In its section on "Faculty," the report said that "faculty workload and salary concerns are being addressed, the latter in part through comparisons with peer institutions. Adjustments of assistant professor and professor salaries have followed an ongoing process since 1997. Definitions of teaching loads, which have budgetary implications, are emerging from department, faculty governance, and administrative deliberations. The broader expectations of faculty performance, encompassing research, professional service, and institutional responsibilities, apparently still fall unevenly across and within departments, as they did in 1997."

The PRR concludes that change and innovation have occupied the institution in recent years. "Already comprehensive, the span of programs and activities continues to grow. The college constitutes a ‘rich and varied' teaching-learning environment and promises to become more so."

For a copy of the report, please call External Affairs at x3412.

Published Monday, May. 20, 2002