University of the Pacific Division of Student Life Receives Ted K. Miller Award

CAS named the University of the Pacific's Division of Student Life the 2013 recipient of the Ted K. Miller Achievement of Excellence Award.

The Division of Student Life at the University of the Pacific has been awarded the Ted K. Miller Achievement of Excellence Award from the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS). Named in honor of CAS's first president, professor emeritus of the University of Georgia, and CAS publications editor until 2004, the Miller Award is given to an individual, higher education institution, or professional association in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in advancing standards of practice and quality assurance in educational programs and services in higher education.

The Miller Award selection committee was impressed with the strength of the application from the University of the Pacific, submitted under the leadership of Dr. Sandra Mahoney, Director of Assessment and Student Development Services. The practices in place at the University of the Pacific reflected a pervasive commitment to meaningful assessment of programs, services, and outcomes. Through their application materials, it was evident that the CAS standards are used to guide practice at the University of the Pacific. Video clips from division-wide discussions of learning outcomes and many resources on the university website illustrated a culture of assessment oriented on student learning.

In their application, the university noted, “The CAS Standards have been the grounding anchor for our program review process, which has transformed our division of discrete departments focused on service and student satisfaction to a learning organization with co-investment and collaborative culture based on assessment of student learning and achievement of student success.” Recognizing the role of the CAS Standards improving the Division of Student Life's ability to conduct data-driven decision-making, the University of the Pacific is an excellent example of CAS values in practice.

Additionally, CAS awarded an Honorable Mention to Bellarmine University's Division of Student Affairs. For more than a decade, Bellarmine's Division of Student Affairs has used the CAS standards and guidelines to conduct five-year cycles of self-assessment. Assessment teams collect and share data for each functional area and support action plans to advance each unit. Bellarmine's nomination stated, “This process includes benchmarking studies, literature reviews, thoughtful discussion and communication across campus. Future programming for the unit is then built on the action plan designed through the CAS process.”

Congratulations to the University of the Pacific's Division of Student Life and Bellarmine University's Division of Student Affairs for excellence in applying CAS standards.

About CAS
CAS was established in 1979 to develop standards that promote college student learning and promote self-assessment for institutional effectiveness. Composed of 39 collaborating professional associations representing over 100,000 professionals in higher education, CAS has developed standards and guidelines for 43 diverse areas of the college student experiences.

The eighth edition of the book, CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education, was released in August 2012. The book of standards is the defining source of professional standards for many of the services provided to students in higher education. Along with the book, CAS also released an updated CD of all 43 functional area self-assessment guides (SAGs). The SAGs provide institutions of higher education with strategies for assessing program and service effectiveness based on the evidence a self-study team gathers and evaluates. Information about CAS and its efforts over its more than three decades can be found at https://www.cas.edu.