As a flagship and New York’s top-ranked public university, Stony Brook must hold itself to a high standard in the quality and rigor of education we provide to students. This is an area where we have placed significant focus over the past few years, especially in the management of curriculum and programs and educational effectiveness efforts. I’d like to share a few key highlights that demonstrate our progress in these areas.

SBCs and SUNY General Education Framework
Through the work of the recently constituted General Education Advisory Committee (GEAC), we have updated several Stony Brook Curriculum (SBC) categories to align with SUNY’s new General Education Framework requirements. The revised SLOs were approved by the Undergraduate Council, with additional review from the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the University Senate Executive Committee.

The categories that were updated are the following: ARTS, DIV, GLO, HUM, LANG, QPS, SBS, SNW, SPK, USA, WRT. 

Local Processes for Academic Program Proposals
Updated guidance from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and SUNY has increased flexibility for some components of academic program proposal development. The Office of the Provost established local guidelines to ensure cohesive expectations and continued compliance with regulation. These local guidelines focus on combined programs and external reviews for new academic program proposals. The full guidelines can be found on the Provost’s Office website.

Program Assessment Milestones and Resources
We started off this year with significant news, that 95% of program assessment reports were completed and returned to the Office of Educational Effectiveness during the 2022-2023 academic year. I am deeply appreciative to all the programs for your work on these reports, which were carefully reviewed by Stony Brook’s Assessment Council. All non-accredited programs will submit the assessment of their second program learning objective by February 23, 2024. 

The Office of Educational Effectiveness continues to host a number of workshops throughout the academic year to support best practices in program assessment. The calendar of events can be viewed online, including the 2nd Annual Assessment Symposium on Nov. 8. Focusing on the theme of Telling Your Story, the Symposium features an exciting lineup of guest speakers who will empower you to master the art of sharing your assessment journey.

Finally, the Office of Educational Effectiveness and the Office of Health Sciences Academic Support are working together to create an Accreditation Advisory Group to enhance the level of support for program-level accreditation on both East and West campuses. 

Middle States Accreditation
As many of you know, several members of our Stony Brook community have been engaged in preparing our self-study and site visit for Middle States Accreditation, which remains on track. A draft of the self-study document will be shared with the campus for feedback this month. The site visit team chair will visit campus November 29-30, and the site visit will occur April 7-10, 2024. See the Stony Brook Middle States website for details.

Closing Thoughts
Maintaining a high standard of excellence at Stony Brook requires intentional effort and hard work throughout our community. I am proud of the emphasis we place on continuous self-assessment and improvement to ensure a Stony Brook education remains one of the best opportunities in the nation. I appreciate all of the staff, faculty, and administrators who engage in these efforts, as we build upon our culture of continuous assessment.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President