Among the more adventurous departments, SRA presentations are public affairs that involve other members of the university community and external reviewers of stature. Examples include Chemistry's inclusion of a Nobel Laureate and other distinguished visitors, Engineering's use of company CEOs from St. Louis, and psychology's choice of venue as the Midwestern Psychological Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago, all for the purpose of gaining quality assessment by external reviewers. Such experiences validate and, when appropriate, recalibrate faculty standards of what constitutes academic rigor. The result is that departments seeking to improve disciplinary acumen and general education skills can build the culture of evidence from which to do so. Liberty and Opportunity Quality assurance through assessment of the Senior Assignment is owned by the faculty of each department.
Some departments are better at managing and experimenting with assessment than others.
As is true for students, professors learn new things by doing them, and assessment is a new thing for most. Therefore, success can be incremental and uneven, but it is sure. Yet the byproduct of sincere internal assessment is the proficiency not only to survive, but to prosper from external review. Through authentic assessment, Boyer's scholarships of discovery, integration, and application are transformed into the scholarship of teaching. And that can be assessed, too.