When institutional need or curiosity drives assessment, faculty and professional staff across an institution can raise questions and jointly seek answers to them. Assessment becomes a collective means whereby colleagues discover the fit between attitudinal, institutional, or programmatic requirements and the target audience's expectations of services. Stakeholders help provide a direction or purpose for the climate assessment.
Participating stakeholders or members of an Advisory Committee planning a climate assessment can be either appointed or invited to participate as volunteers, depending on the objectives of the project. Initially, the major role of an Advisory Committee is to:
- Develop or refine research questions;
- Distill the questions down into domains and variables of measurement;
- Identify assessment parameters and scope; and
- Identify challenges and available resources including funding, expertise, staff time, and existing sources of data.
It should be noted that, later in the process, a critical function of the Advisory Committee is to interpret findings, make practice or policy recommendations based on the findings, disseminate final reports, and implement plans for change. It is a wise practice to maintain an Advisory Committee throughout the duration of a project and if possible, to maintain and modify an Advisory Committee as needed for future initiatives when projects end. Establishing and maintaining contacts over time permits a strong base of faculty and administrative support that is undoubtedly needed for the success of any project, especially climate assessments. Having an Advisory Committee participate in all aspects of an assessment process – preassessment, assessment, and postassessment – provides a convenient and irreplaceable venue for feedback and ideas on how best to collect, interpret, and apply the data while solidifying faculty and administrative support.
Collaborating with colleagues to coordinate a climate assessment takes strategic planning and consideration. Determining faculty, administrator, and staff members who embrace climate assessment will provide a means to navigate the institutional system. In the case of disability issues, obtaining institutional support for such issues may require consultation with and involvement of:
Representatives from Disability Support Services (DSS) and/or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator;
- Faculty, administrators, staff, and students who have disabilities (although they should not always be expected to “represent” disability perspectives);
- Persons who have supported disability or diversity initiatives in the past;
- Persons who participate in committees to promote diversity;
- Persons who have a relative with a disability;
- Faculty in a given department who have served as a liaison with DSS; and
- Faculty in a given department who have provided guidance on teaching and accommodating students with disabilities.
Certainly belonging to one of these categories does not guarantee that individual’s support. However, these groups should be considered as important and viable stakeholders in an assessment process relating to students with disabilities.
Assessment of general campus characteristics and campus-wide issues may be the joint responsibility of several offices on campus depending upon what is being assessed. Each office may be able to offer expertise and resources to help shape, focus, and expedite the project. For example, in the case of initiating an institutional retention study on students with disabilities’ enrollment patterns, it would make sense to consult with representatives from the Registrar’s office, Admissions, Student Services, and Disability Support Services or Multicultural Affairs to determine what data should be tracked, what existing data is collected, and what resources are at the institution’s disposal. In the case of a study on a much smaller scale, such as within a department or across a select number of departments, an Advisory Committee of stakeholders from various units can be selected to coordinate what specific academic or service areas should be treated as domains or foci of the assessment.
