Dear Faculty and Staff colleagues,

It was good to see so many in attendance at the two town hall meetings in preparation for the launch of a comprehensive academic, administrative and auxiliary program review process. This is a huge undertaking for the university, and I look forward to working closely with our faculty and staff at every point in the process to ensure that we are making decisions that best advance our work in service to our mission.

Our next steps will be selecting a consultant to assist us with this work and appointing faculty and staff members to serve on the steering committee. While a great deal still needs to be determined, the next two steps to develop the program review process are identified below.

Consultant Selection
Preliminary work on selecting a consultant began in late fall and winter by reaching out to colleagues at campuses who had used a consultant for their program reviews, attending webinars or conference presentations about program reviews, examining list-serves for suggestions, and engaging firms in exploratory conversations. 

  • Some firms were eliminated as their work was not broad enough, or they had not worked at institutions similar to Puget Sound.
  • On March 19, five firms were sent a request for proposals due on April 5. Those five firms are Academic Strategy Partners; Credo HigherEd; Kennedy & Company; RPK Group; and Stevens Strategy.  
  • The Faculty Senate and Staff Senate leadership have been invited to participate in the review of proposals.  Their evaluations, as well as those of steering committee, co-chairs Provost Laura Behling and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Sherry Mondou, me and members of the Cabinet, and Associate Provost Ellen Peters are anticipated to result in the advancement of two finalists, who will be invited to give campus presentations in mid-April.
  • The campus will be invited to provide feedback on each firm.

Steering Committee
At this time, we are planning for a steering committee of about 30 people, although that number could change based on the recommendation of the consultant selected to work with us on this process. On Friday, April 2, the Faculty Senate and Staff Senate chairs were invited to consider who they would like to represent our faculty and staff on the steering committee and asked to provide names to me by May 11. The steering committee is expected to convene later in May and include students, alumni, President’s Cabinet members, and trustees.  We anticipate that steering committee members will host meetings, town halls, and listening sessions and conduct surveys, to include the voices of campus members regularly into the process. The campus community also will have the opportunity to offer feedback and commentary on proposed recommendations.

Thank you for your engagement in this important work, especially among the myriad other calls on your time and attention at this point in the year.

As a reminder, I hope to see you at the town hall meetings scheduled for April 6 (faculty) and April 8 (staff) at 12:30 p.m. to talk about vaccine availability, Commencement, and preliminary plans for summer terms and fall semester. Login information is available at pugetsound.edu/internal.

Sincerely,

Isiaah
Isiaah Crawford, Ph.D. | President