The Committee on Retirement of the American Association of University Professors initiated its first retirement policies survey in 2000 to address a lack of reliable and systematically collected information on retirement policies and practices across U.S. institutions of higher education. At the end of the 1990s, there was a sense that…

Results of student and parent assessments of a 1986 summer orientation at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, are presented. A total of 805 students and 372 parents completed an evaluation form that used a Likert scale. Of the 18 questions, 7 were identical for both students and parents. These concerned the overall rating of the…

The political processes involved in an academic program evaluation are discussed. The focus is on how evaluative information is politically linked to programmatic decisions within the context of various organizational and evaluative utilization models. To examine the explanatory power of the various theories and models, information from a program…

Incoming freshmen at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington completed evaluations of their two-day orientation. The Orientation Evaluation is administered to freshmen who have chosen to participate in one of three sessions: Summer Orientation, Learning, Advising, and Registration sessions (SOLAR). A total of 166 students completed the…

Distance education at Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education (RMIHE) in Australia is addressed in two papers by David Roberts. The first paper, "Approaches to Learning: An Institutional Study," discusses the results of 1984 questionnaires and diaries completed by RMIHE distance education students. Information was sought on how…

Program evaluation at Waukesha County Technical Institute consists of two phases: a review of student enrollment, job placement, and program costs, which occurs every two years; and a comprehensive review of program content, student job performance, and instructional effectiveness, which occurs every five years. A schedule for conducting program…

The Office of Institutional Research (IR) at Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC) (Florida) offers the results of a survey regarding the use of the office's services. Instead of using hard copy format as in the past, the current survey was conducted online. An e-mail message requesting participation was sent to the 3,498 employees with e-mail…

This report presents the results of a study that was conducted to determine the extent and types of international education programs offered in the Florida Community College System (FCCS). The study provides an overview of the structure and content of international education travel programs offered by each college. Institutional and business…

In an effort to review the effectiveness and the impact of the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) at El Paso Community College (EPCC) and to identify and report any significant problems with the quality of service being provided to the college president and other key policy and decision makers, an evaluation plan and survey test instrument…

Drawing from the experiences of Lansing Community College (LCC), this paper offers a rationale and model for measuring instructional quality. Section I offers background on LCC's efforts to assess the quality of its courses and curricula, and to introduce such quality assurance procedures as computer-based course syllabi, department and program…

The functions of student service offices at Mercy College of Detroit were clarified. A Key Personnel Group (KPG) consisting of the directors of all student service offices was formed. Administration of a needs assessment survey to students who had been admitted conditionally (i.e., entered with less than a 2.00 high school grade point average)…

Although the primary purpose of this report is to present prototypical procedures for conducting two-year college vocational follow-up studies, it also describes the implementation and results of using these procedures in the evaluation of the electronics, computer science, and tool and manufacturing programs at Los Angeles Pierce College. After…

As a follow-up to 1985 and 1991 efforts to determine its own effectiveness in providing useful information to the college community, the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) at Florida's Miami-Dade Community College conducted a self-evaluation in 1994. Questionnaires were mailed to 296 department chairs, Board members, and other professionals…

This report presents information pertaining to evaluations of Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC), collected through the 1996-97 graduate survey. The graduate survey is mailed annually to graduates and contains questions regarding educational goals, employment, and the impact of NVCC on its students. In 1997, there were 2,753 graduates, 936…

A study was undertaken at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), in North Carolina, to examine student opinions of services and factors influencing student satisfaction with the overall quality of CPCC. Questionnaires were distributed to 4,500 students in randomly selected classes in fall 1992, soliciting information on student…