Those in other units may not be, but may still find survey data useful. Some are quite skilled at holistic scoring of essays. Others are not familiar with these techniques. And so on. It is not appropriate, or useful, to treat units with different sets of skills the same way.
Deadlines are useful to make sure that things get done.
So is reinforcing the annual reporting by making outcomes assessment part of the formal program review every seven years. Moving to a two-year reporting cycle in 1998 was clearly an error. Even though units were directed to DO assessments annually, some eliminated longstanding annual activities. In addition, the two-year cycle has been confusing for units and difficult to manage. Things that aren't the responsibility of a single unit require special handling Assessing general education outcomes is an example.