Strengthening Institutional Efficiency & Effectiveness

A U.S. Regionally Accredited Land-Grant Institution

The University of Guam is a United States Land-Grant institution accredited by the Senior Commission of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), one of six regional accrediting bodies in the U.S. WASC accreditation ensures that the University of Guam’s programs meet or exceed U.S. standards. Visit the WASC website at www.wascweb.org for more information.

WASC Capacity & Preparatory Review at The University of Guam

An accreditation team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Senior Commission, conducted a Capacity and Preparatory Review January 31 through February 2, 2007 at the University of Guam.The six member team evaluated the University of Guam using the following four standards:

Standard #1 Defining Institutional Purposes and Ensuring Educational Objectives

Standard #2 Achieving Educational Objects Through Core Functions

Standard #3 Developing and Applying Resources and Organizational Structures to Ensure Sustainability

Standard #4 Creating an Organization Committed to Learning and Improvement

The Capacity Review is the second step in the WASC reaccreditation process that examines the current state of the University of Guam, the institution’s plans to improve student learning and educational effectiveness, and how the University plans to use its resources to achieve institutional goals.

In its June 2007 report, the Commission noted many significant improvements in the areas governance, furthering the land-grant mission, regional program offerings, program review, assessing student learning, and strong administrative leadership. However, the Commission also indicated that,“financial-related problems and continuing financial cutbacks have the clear potential to undermine all of the achievements of the past five years.”

The Commission stressed the impact of the financial crisis on the University at several points in their letter including,“In spite of the University’s outstanding efforts, it is difficult to envision how it will be able to sustain present operations or respond effectively to current and projected levels of student demand in the face of continuing cutbacks and the absence of predictable, stable funding from the Government of Guam.”

During its June 2007 meeting, the Commission acted to:

Continue the accreditation of the University of Guam.
Issue a formal Notice of Concern to provide notice to the University that without longer term solutions to the continuing financial situation, UOG could be found out of compliance with Commission Standards.
Schedule the Education Effectiveness Review for Spring 2009.
Request a progress report from UOG by March 1, 2008 addressing the financial condition of the University and steps taken to assure long-term financial stability.

Assessment

A University of Guam assessment plan, created in 2004, outlined a five-year course of action. The third year of a new, learning-outcomes-based undergraduate program review process was successful with three programs, Psychology, Anthropology, and English, undergoing review in 2007. A new graduate program review system was approved in early 2006. All graduate programs will be reviewed by the end of 2008. Colleges, schools and programs continued to conduct performance-based assessment activities in various programs in support of continuous improvement in learning outcomes.

Program Specific Accreditation

In addition to WASC accreditation, several academic programs have obtained program specific accreditation from nationally recognized professional accrediting organizations including the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLN), the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE).

2007 Audit

The University of Guam’s 2007 audit, released by Burger & Comer, showed a net asset increase of $3.9 million as well as continuing increases in enrollment, credit hours taught, and federal grants and contracts.

2007 marked the fifth consecutive favorable audit. The University depends upon Government of Guam appropriations for approximately 39% of overall revenues and over 76% of general operating revenues. WASC considered financial stability to be the single most important issue going forward in order to sustain the university’s improvements in academic quality and educational effectiveness.The FY2007 audit from Burger & Comer discloses several trends:

Net assets increased $3.9 million to $86.6 million. This was primarily due to increases in GovGuam appropriations and investment income offset by an increase in student services and operations and maintenance expenses.
The University brought in an additional $41.5 million from its own operations and investments, a record level. This means that each dollar that the Government of Guam appropriates has been matched with $1.64 in outside revenues generated by the University.
Grants and contracts from the federal government and others grew by $.5 million to $25.3 million, an average increase of 9% per year over the last six years. This is evidence that the University is a competitive research and service institution in the region for bringing in outside monies and programs that benefit the community. Grants and contracts support a wide range of outreach programs to Guam’s aging and disabled populations, partnership with regional and local entities to improve education, coral reef conservation, and water quality, among many others.
The University has been granted low-risk status for federal grants and contracts for the third consecutive year. This designation validates the university’s federal program accountability. The university manages a complex array of over 105 federal grants.
The $27.6 million government appropriation is the University’s single largest funding source. Only 95% of the University’s 2007 authorized government appropriation was realized, as the government permanently held back the remainder.

Infrastructure Renewal and Replacement

Governor Felix Camacho identified $1.1 million in federal compact impact funds for nine critical campus infrastructure improvements. Projects include major air conditioning systems renovations; new math, science and health education classrooms; A&E design for a new student center; and several other critically needed infrastructure improvements.

Major repairs were undertaken to improve air quality and other health and safety issues and to address long-standing deferred maintenance.

Compliance/Best Practice

Continued best practice improvements in areas such as federal grant administration cash controls, procurement, and budgeting.
A new university website was developed in 2007 and launched in January 2008.The new website has a content management feature which allows faculty, staff, and administrators to post current information. Detailed website analytics show number of visitors and their country of origin, most popular downloads, and most frequently visited pages, among other data.

EEO/ADA Office

The EEO/ADA office staff conducted EEO orientations and Sexual Harassment training for faculty, staff and students (student-new/employee) in Fiscal Year 2007. As part of the University’s commitment to a non-discrimination/non-harassment work and study campus environment, the following activities were accomplished for FY2007:

• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO):

Twenty-four faculty members and twenty students from the AmeriCorps program attended sexual harassment training over a four-day period. Additionally, two-hour EEO Orientations were held for twelve staff members and thirty-five students from the TRiO Student Support Services program.
There were twenty-six requests for EEO assistance in 2007, which resulted in eleven cases being opened. Of the eleven, six were investigated, three were withdrawn, and two were closed.
A total of 86 search committee interviews were attended by designated EEO Counselors.There are presently twelve EEO Counselors serving the University Community.

• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA): The EEO/ADA office received 13 new student requests for disability-related accommodations. No requests were received form employees of the University.

• EEO/ADA Policy Booklets: Thirteen new faculty members and approximately 842 new students received copies of the University EEO/ADA policy booklets during the spring, summer and fall Orientation sessions.

• Institutional Compliance Officer: The University of Guam successfully recruited an Institutional Compliance Officer on November 2007. This position will oversee the development, implementation and management of the University’s compliance programs which includes but is not limited to EEO, ADA, and Title IX actions.

Civilian Military Task Force

The University of Guam has been actively involved with the Civilian Military Task Force (CMTF) which was created by Gov. Felix Camacho through Exec. Order No. 2006-10. UOG chairs the sub-committee on Education which is one of 11 sub-committees. Its mission is to document and benchmark, review, assess, and develop recommendations that support the goal of maintaining quality, accessible education island-wide (public, private, and Department of Defense Education Activity) at all levels from kindergarten through grade level 18 (K-18) as planned military growth and island-wide population growth occur.

With 26,190 military and dependents projected to arrive on Guam and an additional 20,000 civilians and family members projected to migrate to Guam for job opportunities around 2010 and beyond, there is an increased demand for UOG expertise in environmental, cultural/archeological, and economic assessment capabilities to ensure our island and resources are preserved and protected.

During the past year, UOG and other agencies have produced two major reports and several updates on the impacts of the military expansion to the island’s education system, and participated in meetings and forums with DoD, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Government Accountability Office, Outreach Radio and Village Visit Programs, Industry Forums, and 29th Guam Legislature. The most current reports are online at www.uog.edu .

Information Technology Resources/Computer Center

During 2007, the Information Technology Resources/Computer Center helped to improve the University's effectiveness and efficiency and enhance student learning through the following initiatives:

Expanded the high speed Gigabit-switch based network to include the School of Business and Public Administration, School of Nursing and Professional and International Programs.
Improved the campus network and Internet speed by increasing the bandwidth connection by more than 50%.
Enhanced networking infrastructure with some dedicated connection bandwidth for web-based services including ecommerce. Implemented the latest versions of WebAvisor and its associated web-based components for web registration, student advising and student education planning.
Developed a WAN with a dedicated bandwidth connection to establish and support a new of-campus web server for the university. Helped migrate the UOG website to the new UOG web site.
Established a new e-mail system, uguam.uog.edu, to replace the old uog9 and guam.uog.edu.
Increased the number of lab workstations. More than 390 Internet-capable workstations are available in various campus labs.
Established the foundation of a high speed and full scale imaging/video/teleconference campus network and gateway. Tele-video conference network links for the campus network were established in the main locations on the campus.
Increased the dedicated bandwidth connection for wireless access by more than 70%. Expanded the wireless network to include the main computer labs and classrooms in the colleges and schools, the dormitory, Dean’s Circle, Fine Arts Theatre, WERI, Marine Lab, Field House and CEDDERS. To date, more than 1500 students and 150 faculty members have registered for the wireless network.
Enhanced system security and recovery by enhancing the network structure, and utilizing mail filtering & virus protection measures and backup gateways on and off island.
For community engagement activities, the Center provides maintenance and support for:
University of California at San Diego to collect coastal data via Internet for typhoon modeling to support the Coastal Data Information Program.
The Internet Radio Linking Project for emergency communication.
The Department of Labor and the Guam Election Commission for their data base service.
The Department of Motor Vehicles for the driver license examination.
The DNS of .gu domain Guam and the region.
Coordinated to provide such technical/professional training as the MCES to the IT professionals in various agencies in the government.