Though the Office of Institutional Effectiveness recently gave the responsibility of maintaining The Key to the Student Government Association, the office still has its hands full.

Bob Boehmer, the associate provost for institutional effectiveness, said his office deals much more with strategy and planning than maintaining The Key.

“Institutional effectiveness is the whole area of strategic planning and assessing how an institution is achieving its strategic goals and then moving it closer to achieving them,” Boehmer said. “But strategic planning is just one of a series of integrated functions.”

Boehmer said he and his office control numerous activities but are centered around three areas of concentration, the first being planning and accreditation.

“Every 10 years there’s an intensive two-year process to renew (the University’s) accreditation,” Boehmer said.

The second area of concentration is institutional research.

“We are what’s called a decision support function,” said Karen Bauer, the director of the Office of Institutional Research.

“We support by providing information so they make good decisions about the University.”

The Office of Institutional Research serves two primary roles, both focused on aiding the decision-making processes of University officials.

“We assist the University by storing, managing and organizing some of the University’s data,” Bauer said.

“The other function is to provide a variety of information so senior administrative officials can make good decisions.”

Bauer said the office looks at data such as the number of students and faculty and the number of buildings on campus, and it reports all the information to the federal government.

The third area is assessment, headed by Allan Aycock, the director for program review and assessment.

“We work with a faculty committee to oversee review of departments that offer academic programs and help them conduct review of the academic programs,” Aycock said. “This is to make sure programs have the resources they need.”

Aycock also oversees outcome assessments, which every department gives to students when they finish their degree program to ensure students learn necessities that allow them to function in the world.

“When a student goes through a program, they conduct assessments to see if they have achieved those outcomes,” Aycock said. “We receive reports, and my office documents those and effectively manages them.”

This process uses students as a primary source and gives them the chance to suggest possible improvements in their degree program.

“Students are involved in all reviews we do, whether in person or answering questions,” Aycock said. “The answers reflected are very relevant to student experiences in a particular program.”

In addition to coordinating the efforts of the aforementioned offices, Boehmer also serves as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) liaison.

“When SACS has an issue related to the University, I deal with that,” Boehmer said.

“Though it’s unrelated in an organizational sense.”

He also is responsible for the University’s programs at Gwinnett and the planning for the new campus program in Griffin.