Case Study: CSU-Bakersfield
Jump down to The Geology Department * Recent History * Elements of Vulnerability * Addressing the Department's Vulnerability * Looking Forward
Context: The University
CSU-Bakersfield is a relatively small campus in the state university system, and was established in the 1970s. The university is located near one of the largest oil-producing areas in the United States. There are approximately 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The student population is diverse: about 38% Hispanic, 30% Caucasian, and 13% non-Hispanic minorities, with 20% of students choosing not to indicate their race/ethnicity. Recently the university, like many others, has faced major budget cuts, which will continue at least through 2011. At this time if a faculty member leaves s/he cannot be replaced.
The Geology Department
The Geology Department offers both undergraduate and masters degrees in geology with a focus on hydrology and petroleum — applied areas of regional interest. The department is the second smallest at the university, and the chair believes that closing it would have little impact on other departments. There are 5 tenure-track faculty members, four of whom are due to retire over the next ten years. Almost all courses include labs, and field trips are routine. There were 70 undergraduate geology majors and 22 graduate students in the department during the 2009-2010 academic year. The department has some difficulty retaining faculty members, who leave for positions elsewhere, as is also the case within other departments at the university. The department offers a traditional curriculum with a focus on applied tectonics.
Recent History: Teaching More Students with Fewer Faculty
Over the past few years there have been several changes within the department, including a rapid growth in the number of majors. In 2006 there were 25 undergraduates and by 2009 there were 70, and the number of graduate students doubled in the same period of time.
Budget cuts have had a profound and far-reaching impact on the department. While the number of students has been increasing, the number of faculty has decreased. One faculty member retired and could not be replaced. While at one time about a third of the courses were taught by adjuncts, most adjuncts were let go due to budget constraints, and tenured faculty members taught all of the geology courses during the 2009-10 academic year. There has been a drastic reduction in the number of units that the department offers: 205 units in 2006, 165 units in 2009, and only 145 units will be offered in 2010-2011. Yet at the same time the university expects the department to reach and teach the same number of students.
While the curriculum itself has remained the same, the reduction in faculty has affected the curriculum in other ways. To mitigate the effects of this increase in workload, last fall the department was considering eliminating field trips, eliminating labs from some classes and reducing their number in others. The department was also considering eliminating their graduate program, although they worried about losing the whole department if they did so.
Elements of Vulnerability
As is the case with colleges and universities elsewhere, CSU-Bakersfield faces budget shortfalls. In response to this situation, the department chair attended the Building Strong Geoscience Departments 2009 workshop on program assessment and later hosted a visiting workshop. He saw several factors contributing to the department's vulnerability:
- Small size
- Lack of courses required for other programs
- Age distribution of faculty
- Availability of local geology jobs and internships -- some students take a few courses and then leave for jobs
- Rigor of the program relative to other programs at CSU-B
- Lack of assessment data with which to argue for their value to the university
In September 2009, the faculty was aware that the department was in a very precarious position. The administration had announced that it did not want across-the-board cuts which, the chair commented, meant that they would cut departments, and he was concerned that the geology department would be one of them. He noted, "Geology is a strong department in a lot of ways, yet we do not have a single class that anyone else needs to take." At the same time the geology department was well-positioned in some respects. The department has a good reputation and enjoys support from the community, the provost, and the president.
Addressing the Department's Vulnerability
While some elements of the department's vulnerability are clearly beyond their control, the chair felt that they should do what they could to strengthen their position within the university. In particular, he thought they could collect assessment data that would help them both improve and justify their program. He attended the 2009 workshop on program assessment to learn what constitutes a successful program assessment, and how to collect useful data efficiently. At the workshop he found it particularly valuable to see examples where faculty have used assessments to the department's advantage, and he got a better sense of the steps to take in developing an assessment plan. He realized that it's possible to use student and alumni survey data in seeking additional resources from the administration, for example arguing that the department should offer a particular course that has been identified by alumni as lacking. Here's what the department has been doing since that workshop:
- Collecting assessment data to support claims of value to institution: As an outcome of the assessment workshop the chair began systematically to collect data that the department will use in preparation for their next external review. This contrasts with past practices in which the department did little advance planning for reviews. Among other strategies, they have developed student and alumni surveys. Students from the business school administered the surveys. The department hopes to gather suggestions from graduating students for improving the geology curriculum, as well as collect other data such as how long it took people to get through the program, the number hours they worked in a course, their jobs and plans, opinions about course instruction, and what kept them from graduating faster. The chair also hopes for feedback on the curriculum from the alumni survey. Ultimately he hopes to use the survey data to illustrate the success of geology graduates as well as their regional contributions.
- Promoting the department on campus: As the chair explains, "We always prided ourselves on publishing and research but now realize more that you have to do other things as well.... One of our weaknesses was we did not engage in promoting the department." In retrospect, the chair believes that the visiting workshop presenters made a significant difference, by helping the faculty understand the importance of advocating for themselves within the university and by sharing strategies they could use to strengthen the department and reinforce its position within the university. Advice from the visiting workshop team that "everything counts" was instrumental in changes the faculty made. Now, when something positive happens, the chair sends a note to the Provost and Dean to keep them informed. He comments, "Every time I see the provost she says, 'I saw your announcement.' She has a positive perception and that is important."
- Participation in university governance: Because geology is a small department it was not represented on any university committees. As a result of the workshop one faculty member joined a university-wide program review committee, where he can use examples from the geology department to showcase their strengths and successes.
Looking Forward
The department continues its successful student recruitment program. As of the summer of 2010, while the "funding problems are not as big as they appeared," the state budget is in limbo and tax receipts are below projections. Talk of eliminating the department continues, but the dean is very supportive of the geology department. While the chair feels that the department remains fairly well-positioned, their future is uncertain.