CSU pilots national accountability program

Continuing its longstanding commitment to public openness and accountability, Colorado State is now one of the first universities in the United States to join a national effort to provide straightforward consumer information about the institution’s costs, effectiveness, and operations.

The Voluntary System of Accountability program – co-sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges – is designed to help the public better understand how 4-year colleges and universities operate.

College Portrait is the VSA program's reporting system that will provide the public with information about the students, costs of attendance, and core educational outcomes of participating institutions in an accessible and understandable format, which will be posted on university websites.

Standardizing information

Because universities use a common data set on College Portrait, prospective students can easily compare information between institutions to help in college-choice decisions.

CSU posts descriptive data about University programs, student characteristics, cost of attendance and financial aid, success measures, learning outcomes, campus safety, and student experiences and perceptions.

Promoting accountability and transparency

President Larry Edward Penley has made accountability a priority. "In today's competitive marketplace, especially as a public institution responsible to taxpayers, we must be more open, and we must use the growing array of sophisticated information tools that address productivity and accountability," Penley said.

Colorado State is a national leader in promoting accountability and transparency in higher education, posting consumer information long before the College Portrait program was launched. CSU joined the College Portrait project to link with other institutions and to encourage transparency and accountability nationally, said Tony Frank, provost and senior vice president.

"We need to embrace specific, public goals for improving retention and graduation, improve productivity, and assess learning outcomes with such measures as the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Collegiate Learning Assessment," Penley added. "Most important, we need to communicate the results of these measures on our websites and in our publications."

National parameters

College Portrait has great potential for widespread use. In addition to assisting prospective students and their parents, the College Portrait will be helpful to policy-makers, campus faculty and staff, the general public, and other higher education stakeholders.

CSU is on a short list of universities participating in the pilot program. Others include the University of Minnesota, University of Kansas, and University of South Carolina.

For more information about the VSA program, access http://www.voluntarysystem.org/about_cp/index.htm.

For more information about the National Survey of Student Engagement access http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm.