2010 Site Visitors - John Loughney

Email:   loughney@comcast.net
Institution: Westfield State College
Address:

Department of Philosophy
Wilson Hall 302A
577 Western Avenue
Westfield, MA 01086-1630
Phone: (413) 586-9089
Fax: (413) 572-5441
Institution Type: 4-year public
Program Type: institution-wide; some honors in major
Program Enrollment:

150
Present Position: member, Honors Advisory Comm. 2006-
Previous Honors Positions: Director, 2003-05; member, 1979-86; 1998-2005
NCHC Membership Dates: Since 2004

NCHC Activities Related to Honors Program Assessment:

  • NCHC Consultant, 2009, 2007, 2006 - NCHC annual convention
  • candidate, NCHC National Board, 2009

Activities in other areas or organizations related to assessment or site visits, workshops, etc..

  • Site visitor, Eastern Connecticut State University, Spring 2008
  • Member, Westfield State College Honors Program, 2006- ; 1998-2005; 1979-1986
  • Honors courses, 11 to date at Westfield
  • Honors courses (Liberal Studies), 4 at Purdue University (1975-79)

Self identified areas of special interest and experience.

  • Admission criteria
  • Advising honors student
  • Advisory boards & Governance
  • Articulation among institutions
  • Assessment of honors outcomes
  • Budgeting
  • Graduation criteria
  • Handbooks for students and faculty
  • Priority enrollment
  • Residence halls
  • Recruitment and retention of students
  • Self-studies

The Role of an NCHC-Qualified Site Visitor
John A. Loughney, Professor of Philosophy & Women’s Studies
2004 Albuquerque Site Visitors Workshop attendee

Based on my thirty years’ experience in university and college-level honors course teaching and topics I encountered at the NCHC Workshop, I would tend to emphasize a mix of concerns such as the following (meant as a partial list):

  1. What is the nature (health) of relations between the honors faculty supervising and those teaching in the program?
  2. What is the quality of the relationships between those administrators supervising or linked to honors and the overseeing faculty, the participating faculty, other faculty interested in honors (including those involved in individualized student projects, other student activities, or evolving honors campus initiatives), and related support staff (including librarians, technical, community-outreach, and campus housing, et al)?
  3. What measures of student enthusiasm for honors courses, affiliated initiatives, and linked program are employed? What seems the quality of such student interest?
  4. What campus resources are available and (if different) actually in use? What do the affiliated faculty and staff feel about the support kinds and levels?
  5. How many students are taking honors courses? Are “program enrolled”? How are new students sought by the program? What “levels” of participation exist?
  6. Has their been continuity of personnel in the program, measured how? If not, why?
  7. What techniques are in use to introduce new personnel to honors: faculty; counselors; staff; other institutional officers?
  8. What measures exist for examining “program satisfaction” by those taking classes, “enrolled,” or graduating (or graduated)?
  9. How is program governance structured? To what extent do those devoted to the program feel consulted about or structurally involved in choosing leaders for the program?
  10. What campus documents govern? Is there a specific handbook, website, or “charter document” which outlines either faculty possibilities and duties or student performance expectations or project options?
  11. What non-campus resources are usually available to faculty, students, and staff for support of the program? Is the current level broadly felt to be sufficient? Are there plans to seek more such support?