A slice of assessments

At Hope College, we are told we are more than just a number.

One of the benefits of living at a small liberal arts college is the deep integration of students and faculty.  We the students know the ins and outs, the whos and the whats, and ultimately the drama within each department. While nothing in our student handbook says to read between these segmented lines, our “student experience” is shaped by how well-oiled this institutional machine is.

In my junior year, I joined the Student Congress with a burning passion to quantify the student experience.  With the help of the Frost Center for Data and Research, the Student Congress will continue to assess three services or entities on campus every semester moving forward.  These robust assessments will measure how well the departments are serving the student body. From the gathered student data, the Student Congress entity will recommend changes to help the assessed departments continually meet student needs.  This branch of the Student Congress was created as a way to better understand and empower the voice of the Hope College student body, mirroring the existing structure of faculty-led academic assessments.  Each assessment will result in a report and recommended list of action steps introduced by task forces and passed by the General Congress. The report will contain the data collected and analyzed by task forces from a series of student surveys, interviews, and department documents. Assessments will occur on a 3-year cycle. 

The motto is as follows:

“Evaluate the ways that Hope College’s co-curricular structures and services serve students.  The Assessments Committee, Frost Center for Data and Research, and Student Congress task forces will partner with various departments to assess Hope College’s structures and services to determine how effectively they are serving all students at Hope College.”

These assessments will focus on various aspects of the department, examining things such as student involvement in decision-making, which students on campus are being served and the accessibility of the department to all students.

Since the integration of Assessments into Student Congress last year, we have presented twice at the Hope College Board of Trustees meetings and spent countless hours engaged with upper-level faculty members.  The future goal of assessments is to pursue growth in Hope’s ability to anchor new generations of students in lives of leadership and service, and we look forward to working with you all to achieve this mission.  I am excited to share that the newest survey will be sent out on September 26th, and will feature questions pertaining to the Admissions office, the Registrar’s Office and the Health Center. 

If you have any questions about assessments, feel free to email me at joshua.haddad@hope.edu