UCSF recently proposed an action plan that focuses on three themes - all priorities linked to the UCSF Strategic Plan - as part of a three-step process to reaffirm its accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
The three areas of focus for WASC accreditation at UCSF are:
- Improving educational facilities in part by aligning teaching and learning space and technologies with curricular changes and planning and building capacity for projected student enrollment growth;
- Strengthening interprofessional education to better prepare graduates for careers in an increasingly complex health professions environment; and
- Enhancing diversity through outreach, recruitment and retention strategies of women and underrepresented minorities to better address the health care needs of the 21st century.
A WASC review panel accepted the proposal, praising UCSF for a "well-prepared document."
"In particular, the panel regarded the three themes as appropriate to the institution and expressive of significant integrity," noted Richard Winn, associate director of WASC, in a July 2 letter to the Chancellor. "The proposal now becomes the framework for the accreditation review process and represents a plan of action and commitment by the institution."
Assessing Quality
WASC is one of six regional associations that evaluate and accredit public and private schools, colleges and universities in the US. Accreditation is important to any institution as it signals the quality of instruction as determined by internal and external peer reviewers through a process that includes site visits. Accreditation is also crucial to receiving federal funding.
Occurring once every ten years, the WASC accreditation process involves three steps: a proposal that outlines an institution's plans for improvement, a capacity and preparatory review and an educational effectiveness review. The last two steps include site visits by representatives of peer institutions. The site visits to UCSF by administrators from other health sciences universities are set for spring 2009 and fall 2010.
UCSF deals with numerous accreditation agencies, but WASC is the one accreditation agency that evaluates the entire University in a number of areas, such as student achievement.
Increasingly, colleges and universities are being held to higher standards in measuring success, says Joseph Castro, PhD, associate vice chancellor of Student Academic Affairs.
Castro compares the rigorous review of teaching and learning in higher education to the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which became law in 2002. Although criticized for a number of reasons, including lack of adequate funding for public education, NCLB aims to improve the performance of the nation's primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability, in part by requiring students to take standardized tests to measure school progress.
Last accredited by WASC in 2000, UCSF initiated the new accreditation process in early 2006. Chancellor Mike Bishop, MD, and Eugene Washington, MD, executive vice chancellor and provost, appointed the WASC Accreditation Steering Committee to draft UCSF's proposal, get broad institutional support and help guide the process.
Castro, who joined UCSF in 2006, is chair of the WASC Accreditation Steering Committee. Sally Marshall, PhD, vice provost of Academic Affairs, serves as co-chair of the committee, which includes faculty and administrative leaders who represent the Academic Senate, each of the four professional schools and the Graduate Division.
"It has been a privilege to work with such a talented and committed group of colleagues on the steering committee," Castro says. "In developing the institutional proposal for WASC, we have challenged ourselves and the campus community to address three very important areas, all of which are included in the new Strategic Plan. We look forward to helping UCSF become an even stronger and more vibrant campus."
As mentioned, each theme identified in the WASC accreditation proposal is considered a priority in the UCSF Strategic Plan, a guide for the University's future growth and development for the next 20 years. That plan, the product of a highly collaborative process, was unveiled in June. Read the entire strategic plan.
Improving the Learning Environment
UCSF is renowned for its excellence in educating graduate and professional students in the health sciences. The schools of dentistry, nursing, medicine and pharmacy and the Graduate Division are ranked among the best in the nation in competitiveness of research funding and admissions, for example.
But as both the WASC accreditation proposal and the UCSF Strategic Plan point out, the capacity and quality of UCSF's educational facilities and technology lag behind increases in enrollment and best practices in higher education. The expansion to new facilities at UCSF Mission Bay has helped alleviate these woes, but more must be done to address aging buildings, especially at UCSF's flagship Parnassus campus.
"The availability and functionality of teaching space have not kept pace with curricular revisions in each school," the WASC proposal states. "Student body size is projected to increase significantly over the next few years, further straining already limited teaching space. Finally, some of the education space at the Parnassus site lacks information technology infrastructure required for today's teaching and learning environment, including such basic items as wireless connectivity."
The UCSF Strategic Plan also calls for developing educational facilities and infrastructure commensurate with UCSF's stature in health sciences education. Specifically, the plan recommends updating existing facilities and infrastructure at all sites and for allocating existing space to meet educational requirements, such as room for lectures, labs, small group teaching and clinical skills training.
Similarly, UCSF's WASC proposal calls for these actions:
- Revitalizing the Parnassus campus and reassessing the functions and needs at Mission Bay and Laurel Heights, as well as the clinical teaching spaces at San Francisco General Hospital and Mount Zion,
- Creating a clinical skills simulation center that serves all schools and that provides a foundation for experiential and interprofessional training and
- Developing state-of-the-art technology, such as teleconferencing, telemedicine, medical and simulation resources and learning management systems for education space at all sites.
UCSF recently completed the first phase of upgrades to incorporate new technology in 28 classrooms in the Medical Sciences Building, UC Hall, School of Nursing building and the Mission Bay campus, says Castro. All of the Medical Sciences Building seminar rooms now have new control systems that are designed to make it easier for instructors to use audio-visual equipment.
Castro has been working with Steve Wiesenthal, associate vice chancellor of Capital Programs and Facilities Management, to oversee the classroom improvement project, which includes installing new audio-visual equipment and improving the environment with new paint, furniture, carpet and lighting in 40 classrooms, including four Health Sciences West classrooms.
To address instructional technology, UCSF has established two new organizational structures that offer promise in addressing IT issues. The Academic Information Systems Board is providing a forum for discussions and decisions about IT educational needs. And the recent reorganization of campus administrative IT to encompass the academic mission is bringing a new focus and resources to instructional IT.
Strengthening Interprofessional Education
Another area of focused attention raised in the WASC accreditation proposal is the need for faculty and students from all four schools and the Graduate Division to have more opportunities for interaction and collaboration.
"The health care reality is that dentists, nurses, pharmacists and physicians have discrete areas of expertise that are most effective when used in collaboration to create the best therapies, drugs, monitoring and supportive care in today's extremely complex health care environment," the proposal states.
UCSF has been offering more opportunities for interprofessional interaction and collaboration having held its first-ever interprofessional education day last year. A group of educators, including Dorrie Fontaine, RN, PhD, associate dean of academic programs in the UCSF School of Nursing, is working to bring more interprofessional experiences to their students' curricula.
"As we plan for the second annual interprofessional day on September 19, we are mindful that students need to believe that our goal of strengthening interprofessional education is not a one day event, but a philosophy and a mandate for how best to educate health professional students," says Fontaine, who is also a member of the WASC Accreditation Steering Committee. "To that end, we will be discovering new ways to collaborate across the disciplines and professions as we work to make interprofessional education more a reality at UCSF."
In addition, UCSF also must prepare to fill a potential teaching gap since a large number of faculty are expected to retire in the next 10 to 15 years. "The state and the nation now face the critical challenge of training, in a relatively short time, the next generation of faculty for the health care professions. As one of the largest and most distinguished public universities for the health professions in the nation, UCSF must be well positioned to help address this critical challenge," the proposal states.
Among the actions to address these two issues are:
- Establishing a campus task force to focus on developing and supporting interprofessional educational experiences, which will assess current efforts and evaluate learning outcomes;
- Working to inspire the most talented students to pursue academic careers as faculty members.
To take the actions required to demonstrate educational effectiveness, UCSF will have to evaluate teaching and measurements of achievement for all four schools and for the Graduate Division, and to assess the extent to which learning outcomes are measured.
"We will evaluate both institutional expectations and faculty monitoring of student attainment, as these are essential elements in all educational processes," the proposal states. "Learner-centered teaching strategies and measures of graduates' success in meeting educational and professional competencies will be addressed. Internal and external measures of program completion and policies governing student progress will be reviewed, as well as the criteria reflecting teaching responsibilities and their use in the faculty promotion process."
Enhancing Diversity
Nurturing diversity is a priority in the UCSF Strategic Plan. The plan states the need "to build upon its commitment to diversity" in its vision statement and notes that "it is imperative that UCSF continue to improve diversity in faculty, staff, students and trainees to effectively establish a culture of diversity on the UCSF campus." In addition, UCSF recognizes that a diverse campus community helps prepare graduates to serve the increasingly diverse population of California and the nation.
The University first began reaching out to women and underrepresented minorities in the late 19th century, when the Affiliated Colleges formally decided to accept applications from these groups who were often banned from applying to other professional schools.
In the mid-1990s, however, UCSF and the UC system at large reached a turning point with the passage of Proposition 209, the voter-approved initiative that bars the consideration of race, ethnicity or gender in admissions and hiring. Coupled with similar action by the UC Board of Regents in 1995, UC experienced a decline in the number of underrepresented students at all UC campuses, including UCSF.
More recently, UCSF has actively engaged coordinated efforts to promote diversity, and the number of women and underrepresented minorities has begun to rise. In February, UCSF unveiled a 10-point diversity initiative, which included naming a director of academic diversity, among other steps. UCSF named Renee Navarro, MD, as the first director of academic diversity in July.
The WASC proposal reiterates this commitment: "We need to build a unified, campuswide approach to our diversity efforts, which will enable us to use our resources more efficiently and to make greater progress in diversifying the campus at all levels."
The actions identified in the proposal to further enhance diversity call for:
- Identifying, implementing and evaluating current initiatives to maximize diversity at all levels of the campus
- Appointing a self-study team charged to review existing and proposed diversity initiatives at each of the schools and the Graduate Division and in all units responsible for staff and faculty recruitment and retention and
- Establishing, in cooperation with the new director of academic diversity, a more rigorous system of incentives and accountability at all levels for diversity initiatives at UCSF.
Photo by Christine Jegan.
Related Links:
UCSF Works to Expand Interprofessional Education
UCSF Today, April 26, 2007
Students Learn About Teamwork During Interprofessional Education Day
UCSF Today, Sept. 27, 2006
UCSF Launches 10-Point Initiative to Promote Diversity
UCSF Today, Feb. 28, 2007
