Thanks, Bill for these good comments.  And to Peggy and  others, too, who
have commented on the assessment topic.  This is of particular importance
to us at The University of Michigan.  We are undergoing a very intense
assessment of our office as the university moves to a new financial
management plan-Value Center Management (each unit is responsible
for its own income and expenses so indirect costs will go to units who
will then be "taxed" for central services such as the sponsored projects
office).  We have opted for the focus group approach, selecting three
groups of faculty:  health sciences; other science and engineering; and
arts, humanities, and social sciences as well as two groups of
department and college level grants administrators: one set from
departments in large schools and one set of college level folks where
there are no departments. But much of the assessment we must take care
of on our own.

We have been given a long list of questions from our VP for Research
who mandated the assessment.  These are supposedly based on a
procedure used at Northwestern (can anyone there comment on how
you did this?).  After we do our internal assessment, an external
group will further examine our situation.  The external group consists
of 5 national leaders in the Research Administraion profession and
one department administratior from UM.  We thought it was strange that no
faculty members were appointed to this group, they are, after all, our
"customers."

 There are question for us to address, such as what are the unit's stated
goals and objectives, how are they being achieved and how is
progress measured, what is the role of the unit in the university, what
is the unit's distinctive character, what services does it provide and how
well does it provide them (the focus of the focus groups).  Another
question leads me to post this message, it is one that "sits behind" the
whole issue of assessment

"Are there regional, national, or international, standards for measuring
success.  If so, how does the unit fare?  If not, what criteria does the
unit use to measure success?"

I have read much literature on research administration, including
Julie Norris' intro series and Peggy and Sharon's articles but I have
not come across any such  _standards_.  Can anyone cite any
such.  If there are no such regional, national, or international
standards, then how do those of you who assess your success
do so?  I would be very interested in hearing directly or through
the group on how you measure success.  Also, do you do it on
an ongoing basis throughout the year, once a year, or only when
your VP requires it.

Thanks much

Bob Beattie
Division of Research Development and Administration
The University of Michigan

xxxxxx@umich.edu

 ------ From: Bill Kirby, Wed, Feb 14, 1996 ------

I've been following the discussion about faculty surveys and
assessments with interest. At the Federal Quality Institute I worked
with many organizations in assisting them with organizational

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I would be happy to talk to any of you further about surveys,
appropriate organizational assessment tools and methodology. I wish
you luck.

Bill Kirby
NSF

xxxxxx@nsf.gov
703-306-1102