OATdb Archive

2014 - 2015

Family And Consumer Sciences, Department Of

Goal
Scholarly And Teaching Productivity
To increase productivity in the areas of scholarly work and teaching (IDEA scores) for faculty within the department.

Objective
Improve Scholarship And Teaching Over Previous Years
To increase productivity in the areas of scholarly work and teaching for faculty in the department.

KPI
Faculty Evaluation System (FES)
Comparisons over the past four years should show improvement in amount of scholarly productivity.

Result
Faculty Evaluation System (FES)
Comparisons over the past four years indicate that faculty research productivity as documented by the Faculty Evaluation System (FES) has increased in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.  The average productivity from 2010-2013 was 34.5 instances of documented scholarly work per year.  However, in 2014, there were 48 instances of documented scholarly work.  Therefore, the department is showing improvement in this area.


KPI
Individual Development And Educational Assessment (IDEA) Results
The Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) results will be used to measure improvement. Our goal is to have our average above the national average in the IDEA database.

Result
Individual Development And Educational Assessment (IDEA) Results
This KPI Performance Indicator was added to the OATDB for Family and Consumer Sciences without knowledge or input from the department.  It must be noted that the IDEA system does not have enough universities that offer Family and Consumer Sciences (even though it began and is headquartered at Kansas State which has a College of Human Sciences -- i.e., Family and Consumer Sciences -- and Performance -- essentially Kinesiology) to have a national average score for Family and Consumer Sciences in the IDEA database.  The only comparison the department would have would be ALL of the courses in the entire IDEA database (from physics to kinesiology to psychology to theatre and everything else).  In the opinion of the department, a national average of all the courses in the IDEA database would have little meaning.


Action
Scholarly And Teaching Productivity
The data clearly supports that there is increased productivity in the area of scholarly work within the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.  However, with the move from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to College of Health Sciences there are slightly fewer opportunities in regard to grants due to the fact two faculty had received online development grants from CHSS in recent years.  Faculty continue to partner with one another and with people outside the department with the goal of scholarly productivity. 

Regarding the teaching (IDEA) scores, it is important to note that the department is home to three accredited programs (Combined MS in Dietetics and Dietetic Internship Program, Didactic Program in Dietetics [Food Science and Nutrition major], and Interior Design (which actually has two accreditations).  Without quality teaching on the part of the faculty, these accreditations would be in jeopardy, but they are not.  In fact, one accreditation is new (NASAD for Interior Design) and the two dietetics programs have recently undergone re-accreditation.  These accreditations speak to the quality of teaching in these programs and in the department as a whole.


Goal
Program Offerings
To offer programs in keeping with the mission and resources of the department.

Objective
Building/Facilities
The department will provide a department viewed by the students as satisfactory in regard to the building and facilities.

KPI
Building/Facilities
The Exit Survey that had been used for many years was scrapped by the department as "no longer effective."  In its place a new rubric was developed, but that rubric did not include this assessment question regarding building and facilities.  Therefore, very little of this data was collected for this cycle.


Result
Building/Facilities
Due to a change in the instrument used to collect this data, very little of this data was collected for the 2014-2015 assessment cycle. 


Action
Building/Facilities
It has been decided by those collecting this data (primarily Drs. Burleson and White) that the question(s) regarding student satisfaction with the building and facilities would be incorporated into the Final Examination for the internship.  This will capture about 70% of program graduates, and about 80% of those who use the building regularly (one master's program is 100% online and for the other, students spend much of their time in preceptor sites or at The Woodlands campus).  If 80% of students respond to this question, the data should be meaningful.


Objective
Faculty
The department will provide a faculty viewed by the students as satisfactory in teaching prescribed content.

KPI
Faculty
The Exit Survey that had been used for many years was scrapped by the department as "no longer effective."  In its place a new rubric was developed, but that rubric did not include the assessment question regarding satisfaction with faculty in the department.  Therefore, very little of this data was collected for this cycle.


Result
Faculty
Due to a change in the instrument used to collect this data, very little of this data was collected for the 2014-2015 assessment cycle.


Action
Faculty
It has been decided by those collecting this data (primarily Drs. Burleson and White) that the question regarding student satisfaciton with the faculty will be incorporated into the Final Examination for the Internship (FACS 4369).  This will capture about 70% of program graduates, a large enough percentage that the data should be meaningful.


Goal
Program In Hospitality Administration
To broaden the current Food Service Management Program to include the entire hospitality industry without eliminating the current focus on food service.

Objective
Program In Hospitality Administration
To broaden the focus and change the name of the current program in Food Service Management to Hospitality Administration.

Indicator
Hospitality Administration Program
Whether or not progress has been made toward broadening the current Food Service Management program into a program in Hospitality Administration.

Criterion
Focus And Name Change To Hospitality Administration
Whether or not progress has been made toward broadening the focus of the Food Service Management program and changing its name to Hospitality Administration.

Finding
Program In Hospitality Administration
As the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences was moved from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences to the Department of Health Sciences, it is observed that the Dean of the College of Health Sciences, Dr. Michael Lacourse, is more open to discussion about a program in Hospitality Administration because he believes (and we concur) that it would complement the Sports Management track that is being developed within the Department of Health and Kinesiology.


Action
Program In Hospitality Administration
We will, as a faculty, meet and decide whether to continue to propose a program in Hospitality Administration.  We do know that it would not be wise to propose such a program without adequate resources to sustain it.

Goal
Curriculum Development/Graduate Programs
To develop new graduate courses in all areas of family and consumer sciences to meet the needs of current and potential students and other stakeholders.

Objective
Structured Classes For Graduate Programs
Faculty in the department will develop courses that will meet the content area needs of students interested in a concentration or focus area including interior design, fashion merchandising, family and consumer sciences teacher certification, and nutrition.

KPI
Structured Classes For Graduate Programs
Faculty will develop courses that meet the content area needs of students interested in a concentration in one of the following areas of family and consumer sciences: interior design, fashion merchandising, family and consumer sciences teacher certification, and nutrition.

Result
Curriculum Development/Graduate Programs
During the 2013-2014 curriculum cycle, four new graduate courses were proposed and approved by the University Curriculum Committee.  Therefore, this KPI Result has been met.


Action
Curriculum Development/Graduate Programs
Courses are still needed in the areas of program administration, clothing and textiles, family and consumer sciences teacher education, and interior design.

Goal
Tenure-Track Position In Nutrition And Dietetics Programs - Ph.D., RD
The dietetics programs (BS in Food Science and Nutrition and MS in Dietetics) have the goal of requesting a new faculty position; that person would be required to have the Ph.D./RD credential and would teach in both programs.  The addition of a new position would be of benefit in terms of continuing accreditation for these programs.

Objective
Tenure-Track Position In Nutrition And Dietetics - Ph.D., RD
The department received permission to hire a tenure-track position in the areas of Nutrition and Dietetics.  This position is to be filled with a Ph.D. in nutrition, dietetics or a related field who is also a Registered Dietitian.  The person would be able, if needed, to assume the directorship of either accredited program (Food Science and Nutrition at the undergraduate level and Dietetic Internship Program at the graduate level).  The person would be qualified and able to teach in either program.

KPI
Tenure-Track Position In Nutrition And Dietetics - Ph.D., RD
This position was approved and advertised.  However, we were not able to hire by the end of the Spring 2015 semester, and the position will remain open until filled.


Action
Tenure-Track Position In Nutrition And Dietetics
The new Chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences is chairing the Search Committee for this position.



Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

Dr. Sue Reichelt joined the department on July 1, 2015 as Chair of the department.  With her arrival and with a positive tenure decision for Dr. Valencia Browning-Keen, the number of tenured faculty in the department has doubled!  While the faculty productivity KPI performance indicator was achieved, much of this was due to the work of Dr. Browning-Keen.  With more faculty, research productivity can remain at a high level and at the same time, the work load can be more evenly distributed.
 
Also with Dr. Reichelt's arrival, there has been a reorganization of the search committee that was working toward the goal of filling the open tenure-track position in nutrition and dietetics.  Part of this reorganization was necessitated by the fact that the department anticipates two faculty searches during the 2015-2016 academic year. 

We are also pleased to report that the NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) accreditation (a university-wide accreditation spear-headed by the Department of Art which includes the Interior Design program in this department) was achieved.  Again, the Interior Design program will continue to cooperate with the Department of Art toward continued accreditation with NASAD.

The site vist during Fall 2014 from ACEND (Accreditation Council on Education of Nutrition and Dietetics) was successful, and the Dietetic Internship Program (part of the MS in Dietetics) continues its full accreditation.

The department once again requested the three-part sink so that the foods laboratory will be appropriately equipped for commercial food service, along with a SIM Man for nutrition assessment.  The SIM Man was approved, and we will continue to request the three-part sink. 


Plan for continuous improvement One of the most obvious parts of the Plan for Continuous Improvement is to fill the two positions that are currently open, one for a PhD/RD in the area of Nutrition and Dietetics, and one for an MFA or PhD in the area of Interior Design (position currently held by James Landa). 

The department faculty needs to meet and discuss whether to go forward with a program in Hospitality Administration (most of the pieces are in place for a program in Hospitality) and/or the MS in Nutrition (again, most, if not all, of the pieces are in place for an MS program in Nutrition that would not lead to the RD credential as the current DI/MS in Dietetics program does). 

The faculty need to work out a strategy to conscientiously collect the data on student satisfaction with building/facilities and with faculty so that the information is collected as specified in this document.

Finally, graduate courses in clothing and textiles, teacher education, and interior design need to be developed.

There is such wonderful potential for this department with the new faculty member/chair, the newly tenured faculty member, and two current searches.  For some time, the key to the department's growth and success has been to increase faculty size with highly qualified faculty, and we are starting to see likelihood that this key component will come to fruition.