The UW System Board of Regents discussed the emerging College Portrait initiative Thursday, highlighting a feature that would measure how much students learn between their freshman and senior years in college.
The College Portrait, which will be made available as a website this spring, will include a Student Learning Outcomes section that will report evidence of student gains in critical thinking and written communication.
The tests are taken by a random sample of students across the campuses and each school gets its results and integrates that into this college portrait,"" said David Giroux, UW System spokesperson.
Giroux said most UW campuses are already engaged in some type of learning assessment, but added that ""pulling together of all these parts and making them easily accessible in a standardized format"" is the new element.
The UW System has published an annual accountability report since 1990 to update the citizens of Wisconsin on the status of the university, according to the UW System website.
According to Rebecca Martin, UW System senior vice president for academic affairs who spoke at the Regents meeting, institutions of higher education feel pressure to provide information about themselves.
Several methods are being taken into account to determine how to measure learning outcomes, and UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Richard Wells said at the meeting he thought it would be important to be cautious.
""It's very hard to tease out the institutional effect that you're looking for,"" he said.
During the meeting, the UW System President Kevin Reilly also updated attendees on elements of the 2007-'09 biennial budget.
""A competitive pay plan for our faculty and staff is absolutely crucial,"" Reilly said.
Reilly said the recently approved budget included a pay plan that will increase faculty salaries by 4 percent annually for four years, thus narrowing the salary gap between UW faculty and faculty at peer institutions from 8.5 percent to 2.5 percent.
Reilly also addressed the $25 million lapse in state funding the UW System lacks from their proposed budget and the budget signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.
He said closing the gap would bring ""strain and pain,"" but is necessary to ensure that classes are not canceled and that students can still get their degrees.
However, Reilly said he remained optimistic about the job.
""This biennial budget allows us to take those first steps toward that bright future,"" he said.
