Several faculty and staff members have raised concerns since the University System of Georgia began collecting data from Kennesaw State’s campuses in February for the Comprehensive Administrative Review.
According to the USG’s website, Chancellor Steve Wrigley announced the CAR at a board meeting in April 2017. The CAR is meant to take an in-depth look at administrative functions and gather information from all 27 USG institutions. The USG will use information gathered from the CAR to restructure operations and realign positions as a way to be more effective with the university system’s resources.
The university system officially launched the CAR in the fall 2017 semester, and the review will continue in two separate phases. In phase one, the USG will gather information from seven institutions, including KSU, and in phase two, they will gather information from the other twenty universities in the system.
The USG hired Huron, a consulting group, to help gather and organize data from each institution. Huron plans to help lead interviews and focus groups on KSU’s campuses.
The review is being led by a steering committee chaired by University of West Georgia President Dr. Kyle Marrero. The committee is made up of representatives from the faculty or staff of each institution except for KSU, which is represented by a student.
SGA President Victoria Brock sits on the steering committee as KSU’s representative and the lone student on the committee. Several faculty members, including Chair of the Department of Geography and Anthropology Susan Kirkpatrick Smith, brought up concerns about this at a Town Hall meeting about the CAR on Feb. 13.
At the Town Hall meeting, a panel of representatives from KSU and Huron answered questions and responded to faculty and staff concerns. Special assistant to the president Brenda Stopher responded to concerns about Brock’s position on the steering committee by saying that their concerns are valid and that she would take them to the USG.
Dean of the Graduate College Mike Dishman also brought up the student representative at the Town Hall, saying that it is “very alarming” that a student is acting on behalf of faculty and staff.
Several faculty and staff members also brought up concerns about the Opportunity Identification Survey sent out to them on Feb. 5. Many said that the survey was too limited in their questions.
Faculty members said they did not have an opportunity to discuss real problems within their department in the survey. Associate Dean for Academic Support Carmen Skaggs said the survey “locked you into the feedback you had to give.”
The panel suggested to others at the meeting to email any questions or concerns they have to the CAR team at CARquestions@kennesaw.edu.
People also had concerns about the Activity Assessment that is still currently open for faculty and staff members to complete. The assessment measures the roles of each faculty member and how much time they allocate to each role. Starting on March 5, supervisors from each department will review all of the assessments before sending them back to the USG.
Many were concerned that members of the department would not include honest information in the assessment, knowing that their supervisor will review the information.
Representatives from Huron sitting on the panel at the Town Hall meeting said they have conducted the review on other campuses and found that, in their experience, faculty actually wanted to be more honest with their feedback to supervisors.
Huron started interviews and focus groups with members on KSU’s campuses on Feb. 12, and they will likely last another two to three weeks. The USG is expected to publish the phase one report in July, but Huron representatives said it is too early in the process to know when the USG will make any decisions based on the review.
