7.3     Administrative Effectiveness

The institution identifies expected outcomes of its administrative support services and demonstrates the extent to which the outcomes are achieved.

Judgment

x   Compliance           o  Non-Compliance           o Partial Compliance

Narrative  

UL Lafayette has established and maintains a systematic, comprehensive, and effective process by which outcomes are identified, assessed, and analyzed, leading to continuous improvement efforts. Evidence of institution-wide assessment infrastructure, governance, cycle, and review is available in the Assessment Preface (see response to Standard 8.2). 

Evidence of Institutional Effectiveness at the Administrative Support Level

The University’s administrative departments provide essential services that enable the institution to achieve its mission. UL Lafayette’s organizational structure includes Academic Affairs; Administration and Finance; Enrollment Management; Research, Innovation, and Economic Development; Student Affairs; and University Advancement. Among these, administrative support services fall within the areas of Administration and Finance; Research, Innovation, and Economic Development; and University Advancement. (Support departments within Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs are addressed in Standard 8.2.c.)

Since AY2009-2010, the University’s administrative departments have participated in the annual assessment process of establishing goals and reviewing results to improve outcomes. Table 7.3 ­– 1 shows that, in the three most recent assessment cycles (2015-2016, 2016-2017, and 2017-2018), nearly all administrative support departments entered Assessment Plan Elements, Assessment Report Elements, and Reflections. The Office of Institutional Assessment continues to work with Assessment Liaisons to share information on best practices related to assessment plans and reporting, and aims to reach 100% participation throughout the assessment cycle. 

Table 7.3 – 1: Completion by Administrative Departments over Three Assessment Cycles

Evidence of Assessment by Administrative Departments

Each administrative department identifies, assesses, and improves outcomes. Assessment reports for these departments are available in LiveText’s AIS for assessment cycles 2015-present; archived assessment reports generated from WEAVEonline for assessment cycles 2009-2015 are available upon request from the Office of Institutional Assessment. Table 7.3 – 2 provides direct access to each assessment report by department.

Table 7.3 – 2: Assessment Reports by Administrative Departments over Three Assessment Cycles

To illustrate the assessment process, summaries from approximately one-third of the departments are provided below.

Vice President for Administration and Finance

Departments within the Division of Administration and Finance actively track goals and results through the assessment cycle. A few examples of goal setting and tracking, identifying areas of progress, and seeking improvements are demonstrated below.

Administrative Services: Bursar

The Bursar is responsible for providing University students with courteous, efficient, and cost-effective fee collection, and financial aid disbursement processes. In 2016-2017, the Bursar’s office made direct deposit a priority, because the staff recognized that significant time could be saved if more students utilized direct deposit. Thus, the Bursar’s office promoted the direct deposit option by sending mass emails to students, putting hard copies of the direct deposit form in envelopes with printed paychecks, and requiring cashiers to remind students of the direct deposit option when students requested information about their refunds. As a result, the increase in direct deposit options has saved time and money because fewer paper checks are printed (which also decreased time spent folding checks, stuffing and sealing envelopes, and mailing).

Auxiliary Services (Bookstore; Cajun Card; Housing and Business Operations)

Auxiliary Services enhances key elements of campus life by providing a comfortable community atmosphere for students, faculty, staff, and visitors. The assessment goals for some departments within Auxiliary Services are provided below: 

The Ragin’ Cajun Bookstore expects to achieve a higher brand awareness through multiple locations and high-quality merchandise. For two years, the Bookstore set a recurring goal to add more physical locations in order to increase customer reach, and this goal was met in both years. In 2016-2017, a satellite location was planned for the baseball stadium; the project was completed and open for sales in September 2017. In 2017-2018, a satellite location was planned for the soccer and track facility; this project was completed and open for sales in August 2018 for the first home soccer game. These additional locations successfully expand the University’s brand awareness while generating additional revenue.

The Cajun Card staff continue to provide high quality cards and services to students and employees by researching new ideas to enhance the Cajun Cash system. The declining-balance Cajun Cards are accepted across campus and in many establishments in the Lafayette area. Each year, staff evaluate all merchants by completing cost comparisons. This comparison includes annual Cajun Cash sales, service, and maintenance fees charged for equipment and software for each campus merchant. In 2017-2018, the results indicated that the on-campus program is profiting overall, but the majority of on-campus vendors have decreased revenue in recent years. The off-campus vendor program is not profitable. With changing vendors, new contracts were implemented with a higher service transaction fee, and the fee will be in place for all new vendors going forward. Cajun Card staff will continue to track and monitor all vendors and fees for profitability, while also proactively working to grow the list of on- and off-campus Cajun Cash locations. Additionally, the Cajun Card staff will look to the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) network for current approaches to incentivize students.

The Housing and Business Operations office is committed to enhancing student learning and personal growth by providing safe, well-maintained, inclusive, and sustainable on-campus housing. It supports the mission of the University by creating purposeful residential communities and engaging with students focusing on the total guest experience. Educational Benchmarking Institute’s (EBI) student satisfaction survey is administered annually; these results influence the office’s initiatives to increase student satisfaction and retention in on-campus housing. Two goals related to satisfaction included providing housekeeping services two times per week and providing same-day maintenance repairs. In 2017-2018, the office set out to achieve a satisfaction rating of 5.5 on the EBI question regarding “cleanliness of restrooms.” An average score of 5.37 was reported; while the target was not met, it was an increase from the previous year of 5.27. Additionally, in response to “timeliness of repairs,” the office set out to achieve a satisfaction rating of 4.75. In 2016-2017, the rating had been 4.06, and in 2017-2018, the rating increased to 4.82. For the same-day maintenance repairs goal, the office had set a target of 80% of work orders completed within 24 hours. Of the 3,164 work orders submitted, 76% (2403) were completed in 24 hours. Because the target was not met, the Building Engineers will be retrained on the importance of completing work orders within the time required, and two new Building Engineers are scheduled for hire. 

Human Resources

The mission of the Human Resources department is to develop and sustain a dynamic work environment that fosters a culture of excellence by empowering academic and administrative sectors through education, transparency, and subject matter expertise. Maximizing best practices in Human Resources services enables the University to acquire, retain, and support a diverse and inclusive faculty and staff while fostering an environment for exceptional education. A recent goal has been to standardize the hiring procedures in order to expedite hires and empower hiring managers. In 2017-2018, the University launched Cornerstone (a personnel management software), which automated position approval. To track success, the office conducted an audit of position approval forms to determine the timeliness of approval from initiation to processing. Specifically, the office sought to measure average-time-to-approve from the analog paper process compared to time-of-approval in the new automated system. A two-week approval period in the automated system was expected. When the results were reviewed, the office saw the average-time-to-approve decrease from an average of six to eight weeks on paper to an average of three to four weeks automated. While this has facilitated a more expedited recruitment process and cut down the time-to-hire burden for hiring managers, the office continues to train managers in order to further decrease the average-time-to-approval.

Vice President for University Advancement

The VP for University Advancement and directors redesigned the assessment process in 2018-2019. After several years of each department tracking its own goals, the VP and directors identified five division-wide goals related to philanthropy, engagement, communication, infrastructure, and stewardship:

1.          To develop a comprehensive case for philanthropic support that will inspire an increasing number of alumni and other University stakeholders to contribute their time, talent, and treasure to the University, and to implement development strategies that will position the University for continued growth and long-term sustainable philanthropic investment.

2.          To provide opportunities that will enrich the lives of alumni and other University stakeholders, as well as ways to enrich the lives of current students, fellow alumni, and the University community. These opportunities will focus on relationship-building and should lead to a stronger lifelong bond with the University.

3.          To communicate and promote the University with alumni and other University stakeholders.

4.          To develop the sustainable infrastructure necessary to support a comprehensive campaign and implement talent management strategies that will facilitate the recruitment, development, and retention of the highest quality Advancement staff.

5.          To steward University donors and stakeholders through a comprehensive donor relations effort that ensures high-quality interactions with the University, fosters long-term engagement and investment, enhances relationship-building, and provides exemplary service in gift acceptance and management, acknowledgment, donor recognition, and reporting.

Each of the four departments then developed specific measures to assess these goals, and they are currently tracking results of these new goals in the 2018-2019 assessment cycle.

Prior to the creation and alignment of the division-wide goals, the Office of Communications & Marketing (OCM) sought to promote and protect the University’s brand by developing news stories and partnering with media to create additional story outlets. Throughout 2017-2018, OCM wrote and distributed 130 news stories to the public; each story was aligned with the University’s branding messaging, and highlighted research, University experts, student achievements, and growth. Internally, OCM worked to establish the processes through which internal communications should be distributed. This internal communications goal was achieved by drafting an internal communications policy that established protocols and procedures; the policy was approved by the President and implemented. Additionally, OCM collaborated with Information Technology (IT) to create a homepage in ULink for announcements; the messages are intended to be posted on the internal portal to minimize email distribution. The ULink announcements page launched in Summer 2018.  

As part of the development cultivation cycle, the Development office sought to engage 970 face-to-face meetings in FY2016-2017. Though the actual face-to-face total was 939, it represents a significant increase (127%) from the prior fiscal year. The increase resulted from hiring additional staff and holding staff accountable to this metric. After reviewing the results, the Development office recognized that not all staff were accurately entering the face-to-face data correctly. Thus, the Development office intends to formally train its staff to ensure timely and accurate data entry of face-to-face meetings.

Summary of Institutional Effectiveness at the Administrative Services Level

UL Lafayette’s Administrative Services departments actively set goals, assess these goals, identify areas of progress, and seek improvements in order to effectively achieve the University’s strategic goals. 

Supporting Documents

2016-2017 Administrative Services – Bursar

2016-2017 Auxiliary Services – Bookstore

2016-2017 Auxiliary Services – Housing and Business Operations

2016-2017 Development

2017-2018 Auxiliary Services – Bookstore

2017-2018 Auxiliary Services – Cajun Card

2017-2018 Auxiliary Services – Housing and Business Operations

2017-2018 Communications and Marketing

2017-2018 Human Resources and EEOC Officer