About the SUNY Assessment Initiative
The SUNY Assessment Initiative began in Fall 1999 when Provost Salins established an Advisory Task Force on the Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes to develop a process to assess student learning outcomes in both General Education and in academic programs. According to the task force, assessment serves two functions, improvement and accountability. Consequently, the Assessment Initiative consists of both campus based assessments which focuses primarily on program improvement and University-wide assessment which addresses accountability and advocacy.
The Task Force emphasizes that assessment is a "process for understanding and improving student learning."