1. New ALO lunch, WASC ARC 2011
Diane Jonte-Pace, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Santa Clara University
April 6, 2011
Four brief recommendations for new ALOs
1. Learn to love the CFRs
• 42 CFRs (or more, with Handbook revision?)
o mission, diversity, learning objectives, data collection, etc…
• Don’t be overwhelmed: All are useful and necessary
• They’re the architecture, the foundation for a strong university
• Use them as guidelines for decision-making and a rationale for university policy
• Whatever your job is, you’ll be able to do it better because of your role as ALO
and your use of the CFRs
2. Remember the broader vision
• Don’t be overwhelmed by details
• Keep the goal in mind
o good teaching
o deep learning
o wise decision making that’s evidence based & mission based at every
level
• Remember the vision & you won’t get lost in the details
3. Share the broader vision
• You may find that WASC isn’t universally loved and understood on your campus
• You may need to be a mediator or translator
o Remind colleagues of common goals: good teaching, deep learning, and
informed decision making
• Share the documents – WASC provides many valuable sets of guidelines, rubrics
o Use them, distribute them, rewrite them for your own university.
o Integrate them into your work, your presentations on campus, your
processes of implementing new initiatives. My favorites:
 EEF, Educational Effectiveness Framework (good for Pres
Cabinet, Deans, Department chairs)
 Rubric on learning outcomes for General Ed – we rewrote it for
“core” and “objectives” language & used it with department chairs
and faculty core committees.
4. Accept the invitation to serve on a visiting team
• If you’re invited to serve, accept the invitation. You’ll learn a lot in the evaluator
training; working with the team is great; visiting another institution is a rich
experience.
Finally, I want to say welcome - you’re part of an important team engaged in doing
something crucial for higher education in the US: supporting good teaching, deep
learning, and wise decision making.