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In the third year of the plan, the president’s cabinet convenes a new strategic planning task force to begin preparing the next three-year plan.

Academic Program and Administrative Department Planning Timeline

Each year, individual academic programs and administrative departments engage in a localized planning process that considers two academic/fiscal years simultaneously and consists of the following components:

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Each summer, deans and VPs review progress reports from their academic programs and administrative departments and provide feedback to inform future direction. VP review of program/department progress reports also inform the PACE Executive Summaries (further described below) they prepare for the president and for the board of trustees annual general meeting each November.

See Appendix 1 for a list of EMU's planning units as identified for PACE planning purposes.

Annual Budget Process

Each year in December the chief financial officer kicks off the formal process for development of the university operating budget and capital expenditure priorities for the next fiscal year. Prior to this formal launch, academic programs and administrative departments can begin preparation of budget requests and capital requests. These requests will likely have emerged through the program’s/department’s local planning processes, and can be submitted via the planning system (SPOL).

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It is worth noting that the SACSCOC principles do not here require that administrative departments provide evidence of seeking improvement. Administrative support services may find success in having articulated standards of service and consistently achieving them. 

See Appendix 1 for lists of EMU’s academic programs and services and its administrative departmentsdepartments as identified for PACE assessment purposes.

Assessment Timeline and Data Collection Cycles

The outcomes assessment work of academic programs and administrative departments will generally take place late in the academic/fiscal year. By design, this work should be completed prior to taking up planning work for the upcoming and future years and can inform budget requests and planning objectives for the program or department. A basic timeline:

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A basic timeline:

• Fall Semester - Collection of data from fall courses/activities as per program/department assessment cycle requirements; survey administration per university survey calendar
• Spring Semester - Collection of data from fall courses/activities as per program/department assessment cycle requirements; survey administration per university survey calendar
• April - September - Window for data analysis and outcomes assessment reporting in SPOL
• Summer - Collection of data from fall summer courses/activities as per program/department assessment cycle requirements; survey administration per university survey calendar
• Spring Semester - Collection of data from fall courses/activities as per program/department assessment cycle requirements; survey administration per university survey calendar
• April - September - Window for data analysis and outcomes assessment reporting in SPOL
• Summer - Collection of data from summer courses/activities as needed
• August - September - Develop assessment follow-up planning objectives for upcoming year to seek improvement in student learning on the basis of assessment findings

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• August - September - Develop assessment follow-up planning objectives for upcoming year to seek improvement in student learning on the basis of assessment findings

Special Considerations

It is important to note that academic programs and services and administrative departments need not collect and analyze data for each of its outcomes every year. A program/department may develop a multi-year (ideally 2-4 year) cycle over which it assesses each of its outcomes. Such a cycle allows for data collection over multiple years, and allows programs/departments to provide more focused attention on a subset of their outcomes in any given year. Beginning with the rollout of the updated academic program review cycle in 2020-21, academic programs are expected to have collected and analyzed data for each student learning outcome at least twice between each program review. See below for further details on program review.

Further, in order to ensure the sustainability and validity of assessment, small academic programs may opt to extend assessment data collection over several years in order to achieve adequate sample sizes to support analysis. Programs that opt for this approach should collect data for all outcomes each year, but may still focus on analysis of results for a subset of student learning outcomes each year. 

PACE - Executive Reporting

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Appendix 1 - EMU Planning Units and Programs for PACE

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Appendix 2 - Academic Program Review Process Details

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