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Purpose
The purpose of program review at St. Olaf College is to provide program faculty and academic administrators the information they need for effective academic decision making. The process provides an opportunity for faculty members in departments and interdisciplinary programs to:

• Articulate their mission and vision, including their intended student learning outcomes, scholarly and artistic accomplishments, and leadership and service within and beyond the College;
  
  
• Conduct systematic inquiry concerning the nature and impact of their work as teachers, scholars, and community members;
  
  
• Receive feedback from peers in other institutions;
  
  
• Set priorities for both the short-term (3-5 years) and the longer-term (8-10 years), to help guide and evaluate future program decisions;
  
  
• Disseminate their mission, vision, accomplishments, and future plans to others, both inside and outside the College community.

Just as the tenure and promotion process at its best can foster reflective practice and enhance the effectiveness of individual faculty members, so the program review process can foster reflection, inform practice, sustain strengths, and promote improvements in departments and interdisciplinary programs.

Benefits
Program reviews are a considerable undertaking for faculty, staff, students, and administrators. Faculty members who are principal writers and/or researchers are likely to commit substantial time and energy to the preparation of the self-study. Even faculty members who are not principal authors will spend significant time in meeting with their colleagues, reviewing drafts, and gathering data. Academic administrative assistants are often key contributors as well, since much of the information included in a self-study is in paper and electronic department records. Staff in other administrative offices – the Office of the Registrar, E&A (Office of Academic Research and Planning), IRP (Office of Institutional Research), College Archives, and IIT (Information and Instructional Technologies), to name just a few -- are asked to provide department-specific information which may cover a time period of several years. Student workers may be recruited for research and administrative support as well, and current students and alumni may be surveyed as part of the self-study process.

What makes this investment of time and energy worthwhile? The ultimate answer, of course, is that the process can help programs sustain their strengths and address their weaknesses, to the benefit of their principal clients -- their students and the communities they serve. But there are other benefits as well for each of the participants in a program review, benefits which obtain from the process of the self-study as well as from its outcomes and impact.

Benefits for program faculty
Program reviews may serve the following purposes for the faculty members in the department or interdisciplinary program being reviewed:

• Articulating program mission and vision in relation to the College mission and vision. Just as the College mission statement helps to define the distinctive identity and purpose of the College as a whole, so a clear articulation of program mission and vision can shape identity and purpose. Program faculty and “clients” alike benefit from an explicit understanding of the way in which the program contributes to the mission of the larger College.

• Building consensus around program goals and objectives. A clear, coherent and succinct statement of program goals and objectives can provide a helpful benchmark for reviewing program requirements, activities, services, and resources. It also requires some discussion of the distinctive contributions the department or program is making to the larger purposes of the College as a whole. Some faculty members may find this process helpful in their professional development activities; a clear statement of disciplinary purposes and priorities may figure in research papers and conference presentations.

• Looking outward. The process of selecting, articulating, and refining program goals frequently engages the department with projects and priorities in relevant professional associations. It may also prompt departments to look at comparable programs in other institutions and borrow "best practices."

• Providing meaningful assessment data. One component of the self-study is the collection of assessment data that provide insight into student learning processes and outcomes. Programs can tailor their assessment activities to answer the questions that are most urgent for them in evaluating their curriculum and pedagogical practices. Assessment data can also support successful grant applications.

• Setting collective priorities. Program goals and objectives alone won't necessarily make priorities self-evident. The program review process includes a planning component, which in turn requires some prioritizing. Being explicit and intentional in establishing departmental priorities can in turn help individual faculty members set priorities with a view to the collective well-being of their department as well as to their own career objectives. This is true not only with respect to the department's instructional priorities, but also with respect to the professional development and leadership activities of its individual members.

• Evaluating progress. All the above can provide benchmarks against which programs can evaluate the degree to which they are carrying out their mission, following through on their short-term and long-term priorities, and meeting their goals and objectives.

• Telling the department's story. The program review process is an opportunity for departments to say, "This is who we are, this is what we are contributing, and this is where we want to go." Many departments find this intrinsically rewarding. It can also lead to fruitful partnerships with other faculty, administrative offices, or colleagues at other institutions.

• Informing recruitment, hiring, and orientation. The program review process can help departments in crafting job descriptions and in recruiting and evaluating applicants. Some program review documents (such as the narrative portion of the departmental self-study) may be provided to candidates invited to campus for interviews, which helps them get to know their prospective colleagues and enhances the quality of the interview process.

• Leveraging research support. Narratives and data culled from the program review process can be invaluable for individual and group grant applications for teaching and research. Most grant applications require applicants to document needs and describe institutional or organizational capacity, and program reviews provide a ready source of information, particularly if they include meaningful assessment data.

• Building community in the department. The process of establishing shared goals, setting collective priorities, disseminating a distinctive identity, planning for the future, and tracking progress enhances community. Program reviews help faculty members situate their individual goals and accomplishments in the larger context of their department's intentions and identity. They also help orient faculty newcomers. Some departments and programs have found the program review process helpful in directly confronting and resolving long-standing disagreements or conflicting priorities.

Benefits for administrators
Academic administrators may also benefit from departmental program reviews. Possible uses include:

• Informing staffing decisions. Program reviews provide evidence to inform administrative decision making in response to requests to hire for tenure lines.

• Strengthening leadership of individual Faculties. Program reviews familiarize the Associate Deans with the distinctive strengths, accomplishments, needs, and future plans of the departments and interdisciplinary programs within their Faculty. This permits the Deans to offer support, identify areas of common interest across departments, link individual faculty members or entire departments with relevant resources on- and off-campus, and attempt to meet identified resource needs. Associate Deans are thus better equipped both to advocate for and collaborate with the departments and programs for which they are responsible.

There is no question that a program review is a major undertaking that makes significant demands on program faculty, staff, administrators, and others in the College. But it has the potential to reap significant rewards, not only for the program as a whole but also for individual program faculty. Findings from a recent nationwide study by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) indicate that program reviews can allow individual faculty members to “focus their efforts on activities that best draw upon their own skills, talents, interests, and experience, and …negotiate with their colleagues how they might best use these strengths to contribute to the work of the department” (Wergin and Swingen, 2000: 3). Program reviews can foster more informed decision-making, more intentional allocation of resources, and improved practice. They can help program faculty do more of what they care about the most, and do it better.