PSC Context and Overview

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The aim of the Program Sustainability Check-up (PSC) is to quickly and efficiently identify programs that may need help to improve their long-term viability. This is not an attempt to identify programs for suspension, but a proactive effort to support programs that may have different types of challenges. Working with Institutional Research, the Academic Program Review Creation Committee has developed a suite of data pages with a dashboard that reports five years’ worth of data that program faculty will use to analyze their programs.  The committee, composed of faculty from across the university representing diverse disciplines and program sizes, spent months developing a set of metrics and thresholds that programs should meet to demonstrate their sustainability. 

The APRC Committee has identified several characteristics to measure sustainability: # majors, # graduates, 6-year graduation rate, average annual change in majors and degrees, average student credit hour production, and % SCHP by full-time faculty. One of the strengths of this approach is that it does not simply flag programs that have significant enrollment declines, but it also identifies programs that may be short-staffed.  Again, the goal is to highlight programs with specific challenges, to help them proactively take steps to improve, and to give them an opportunity to advocate for resources from their colleges. 

Programs that meet or exceed the sustainability thresholds will not need to write a report although analyzing the data each year will be a helpful way to monitor the sustainability of the program.  Programs that do not meet the thresholds will complete a brief report to assess their program’s sustainability and potentially make a plan to improve it with support from their colleges.  Program coordinators will work with department heads to

• answer a series of questions to explain their situation and their plans to improve the sustainability of the program (if applicable);
• set goals and a timeline to meet those goals; and
• describe kinds of support (financial or otherwise) the program would need to improve and to achieve the goals.

The college dean (or their designee) will review the explanation and plan and provide input and determine the level of support that is available. It is vital that deans, department heads and program coordinators have a conversation about the proposed plan to share their different perspectives and to develop a feasible final plan.  Departments may need to amend goals based on the types and levels of support that colleges can provide.  Once the program faculty, department head, and dean have come to an agreement, they will share the plan with the WKU Academic Program Review Committee and the Provost. While the APR Committee and Provost will monitor progress, deans have full authority over the programs in their colleges. Once a plan has been approved by the dean and a timeline agreed upon, the program will not be flagged until the timeline has passed, but the program will need to submit a brief annual progress report (one paragraph) to the dean and APR Committee.