Savannah State University
Visiting SACS Team
Mock Interview Questions

Note:  Listed below are a variety of questions that you may expect visiting SACS team members to ask you about institutional effectiveness, the self-study, and the university during their visit.  While most of these items are specifically prepared for and suggested to team members in the Commission on Colleges' Handbook for Peer Evaluators, some few have been added locally here at SSU.  You are encouraged to think carefully about your responses to these in advance.  [The list is not exhaustive; you may expect other questions relating to specific areas of the university; these are meant to apply across the campus.]

I.  Examples of questions related to Institutional Effectiveness:

1.  To what extent and in what ways does the institution demonstrate that it uses the results of its planning and evaluation efforts?

2.  How are planning and evaluation used in your unit to guide daily practices?

3.  Does the institution and its components have stated goals or expected educational results that reflect a direct relationship to the statement of purpose/mission?

4.  What provision does the institution make for evaluating the outcomes of its general education program?

5.  What provision does the institution make for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of your own organizational unit?

6.  How does the institution gather and use the results of feedback from its constituents regarding the quality and performance of instructional services?

7.  Are there clear and documetned examples of changes -- additions, deletions, revisions -- made to any program or policy as a result of assessment or other effectiveness activity?

8.  Please tell me about something you do today differently than you did a few years ago as a result of some assessment activity.  Describe that assessment activity.

9.  Is the institutional research function evaluated to determine its efficiency and effectiveness within the overall institutional planning and evaluation process?

10.  How does the institution use the results of its institutional research activities to change, strengrthen, or enhance its educational programs and services?

11.  How are institutional research findings communicated to you?

12.  By what means and with what frequency does the institution evaluate its effectiveness in fulfilling the various aspects of its official function?

II.  Examples of questions related to other sections of the Criteria:

1.  Can measurable operational goals or objectives be derived from the University's statement of purpose or mission statement?

2.  How does the mission statement differentiate between this institution and its primary competitors?

3.  To what extent is the University's mission understood throughout the institution?

4.  To what extent and in what ways are other dimensions of the institution such as the library, student services, educational programs, physical facilities, and the general organization evaluated?

5.  To what extent and in what ways are the various unit level plans throughout the institution incorporated into the institution-wide plan and planning process?

6.  Describe how the institutional planning process relates to the institution's budgeting process.

7.  How does the University plan what it is going to do in the future?  Do you have an opportunity for input?  Is your input taken seriously?   How do you know?

8.  Can you describe something the University once planned to do through its formal planning process that was later discovered, through its evaluation process, to not work as expected?  And what did the University do with this finding?   Describe how did the university make decisions about this plan and this evaluation?

III.  Examples of documents and/or explanations requested:

1.  Please show me or tell me about the mission statement for your organizational unit.

2.  Can you tell me about some specific strategic goals that your unit is pursuing at the present time?

3.  Can you tell me how your unit will evaluate the achievement of those goals to ensure that they are accomplishing their intended outcome?

4.  Please show me the results of some tests and/or other analyses and evaluations of assessment.

5.  Do you have available copies of any external program reviews or accreditation reviews from specialized accrediting groups?

6.  Please show me the results of any surveys that you may have conducted?

7.  May I please see the collection of minutes for the Institutional Effectiveness committee?

8.  Can you show me a current policy manual for your unit?

9.  Do you have access to and can you show me minutes of administrative committees, councils, faculty senate, etc. to document where they are addressing matters of institutional effectiveness?

10.  Do you have access to an up to date institutional Fact Book?   What information would I find in that document if I were to look?

11.  Can you show me a current and up-to-date job description for your own position?

12.  How is your own work performance evaluated?  What are the critria or expectations?

13.  Please describe what limitations, if any, prevent you from doing your best work here?

14.  What, if any, things need to be addressed through the formal planning process that have been neglected?

15.  Can you describe any major decisions that have been made for the future direction of the university that may have by-passed the formal planning process?   Why do you think this was this done?

IV.  Examples of questions about the Self-Study:

1.  How clear is the statement of purpose or mission of the University?  Can you tell me what it is in your own words?

2.  Does each of the self-study sections define how effictiveness is measured?

3.  Does the self-study provide data and data analysis to support the institution's claims of effectiveness in pursuit of its purpose/mission?

4.  Does each section of the self-study have projections of future programs and needs?

5.  Does the self-study include plans for following up on suggestions and recommendations made in its own self-study report?

6.  What are the relationships between the individual unit plans and the institutional plan as set forth in the self-study report?

7.  How did the University decide who would be members of the various committees for the self-study?

8.  Did you have an opportunity to provide input for the self-study?

9.  Have you had an opportunity to review the self-study?   (i.e.: was it available for your review?)

Page last uptaded:  10/22/03