Re: a question James R. Brett 18 Nov 2002 13:07 EST
Mary, Ask your President how he or she would compare Plains to Vidalia. Would you count the fact that one produced a President? How would he or she compare onions to peanuts? Who is responsible for blights? Does the mayor work with the Chamber of Commerce more effectively in one or the other? Do the town councilmen and women agree on the economic plan for their respective towns? Do they have an economic plan? Do the townpeople turn out for civic events? How many books in their respective town libraries ... and is circulation good? Do the town doctors blame influenza on their stethoscopes or the town pharmacies or local newspapers? Benchmarks, so called, were scrawled into workbenches so that successive cuts on a piece of wood would come out the same. Benchmarks are good for things that need to come out the same. You could get the same length of wood and rope and pvc using the same benchmark. You could conceivably have a benchmark for slicing bananas onto your morning cereal, but most kitchens rely instead on the skill and judgment of the preparer. On the other hand, planning is good, expecially when associated with resources. Cheers, Jim Mary Watson wrote: > We are deep into planning throughout our university - new President, etc., > etc. > > I have had a question put to me that I have no answer for - "How do you > measure success relative to other institutions?" > > I have never used other institutions as benchmarks because I have always > seen each as unique. > > Do any of you use some sort of yardstick to measure success that takes into > account similar institutions? > > We are rural, nearly 10,000 students, regional university, strong education > and arts colleges. Also have nursing, business and arts and sciences > colleges. > > Thanks for any input. > > Mary H. Watson, Ph.D. > Valdosta State University > > ====================================================================== > Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including > subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available > via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") > ====================================================================== -- James R. Brett, Ph.D., Director, Office of University Research California State University, Long Beach 562-985-5314 562-985-8665 fax http://www.csulb.edu/~research/ ====================================================================== Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists") ======================================================================