Formed in 1999 by then-Provost Mahler as an ad hoc working group, the Assessment Committee became a permanent faculty committee in 2002 with the charge of studying, reviewing and assessing the College’s educational programs, curricula, and academic departments.   

Over the following twenty years, a broad cross section of the campus community actively participated in this assessment work, with 31 distinct faculty and administrators having served on the Assessment Committee. The scope of the committee converged and narrowed to the development and implementation of regular assessment activity and reporting from the academic major departments of the College. By 2012 all major departments had developed student learning outcomes and assessment plans, and most programs adopted a practice of ongoing assessment activity and reporting. 

In 2019 the Institutional Assessment Committee (IAC) was formed by President Gonzalez with a charge to develop and articulate a campus-wide framework for assessment. With this broader structure in place, the Faculty Assessment Committee was eliminated as a faculty committee in 2021.   

As a vital part of  IAC’s work, assessment activity and reporting by academic majors continues, with the Assistant Provost for Teaching, Learning and Assessment serving as the primary administrator of that enterprise.