"...institutional assessment efforts should not be concerned about valuing what can be measured but, instead, about measuring that which is valued."  Banta, T. W., Lund, J. P., Black, K. E., & Oblander, F. W., Assessment in practice:Putting principles to work on college campuses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass: 1996:5

Our Mission

The Student Affairs Assessment Team (SAAT) serves as a resource for departments developing assessment projects. The team meets two times per month to assist in the development of and promote the use of quality assessments throughout the division. Team members provide constructive feedback on the design, instrumentation, analyses and dissemination of assessments within Student Affairs. Members work on a one-to-one basis with staff in their respective departments to develop and improve assessments and may bring assessments to team meetings for group review.

SAAT reviews assessment data collected by Student Affairs departments to synthesize data across assessments and facilitate the development of cross-departmental strategies to address the findings. Through presentations, the team educates the University community about the needs of students and promotes the use of assessments as a critical component of data-based decision-making in a collaborative framework.

In addition to developing quality assessment instruments and action plans for the division and individual departments, SAAT members collaborate to produce a newsletter to report highlights of Student Affairs research of interest and use to the University's academic community. The team has also developed a set of standard demographic survey items for use by departments when developing survey instruments.