About OIR
Mission Statement
Staff:
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Frank Doherty, Director
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Chuck DeHart, Policy/Planning Specialist II
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Rosemary Brenner, Policy/Planning Specialist I
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Tina Grace, Administrative & Program Specialist III and SACS Self-Study
Secretary
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Peggy Simmer, GA for the SACS Self-Study
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Olivia Ciobotaru, GA
Questions about OIR's activities can
be directed to
Institutional Research. |
Introduction
One of the important functions of
OIR is to conduct research about the university to support
decision making. Since many of you depend on our office for
official information for a variety of purposes, we are publishing
a quarterly newsletter to inform you about research
activities that might be useful to you. We welcome your comments
about our newsletter and appreciate your support. Please feel free
to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Frank J. Doherty, Ph.D. Director, OIR |
Recent Additions to OIR's
and Institutional Effectiveness's Web Sites:
We have greatly updated the peer information on our web site,
including the following:
Statistical Summary
Annually OIR produces a Statistical Summary of
important information about JMU. Five years ago OIR placed its
first Statistical Summary on the web. Now, as information is
collected and verified, we will place new pages on our web site.
JMU's
Reports of Institutional Effectiveness: JMU is required to report
annually to SCHEV performance in a variety of dimensions
similar to all higher education institutions in Virginia and on
institution-specific measures. JMU's institution-specific
measures all relate to learning.
AAUP
Data: Data on average faculty salaries for JMU's peer
group are displayed for 1992-93 to 1999-00.
Peer
Information: Several tables of information that compare
JMU with our peers have been added. These include information
about graduation rates, finances, costs, etc.
OIR's
program reviews, annual reports, and 2000-01 goals.
Academic performance of transfers
at JMU.
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Current Projects
JMU
Planning Database
The Division
of Institutional Effectiveness is coordinating the development
of a web-based comprehensive planning database that is ready
for use. This system provides a single point
of entry for all strategic and operational university goals and
objectives. It can be used to display on the Web unit, division,
and university goals. It will encourage collaboration in the
development and reporting of goals and objectives throughout the
university. It incorporates the requirements by SACS for
the integration of Mission, planning, evaluation and assessment,
and use of results for program improvement. The module is being
developed by the Madison Media
Lab. Training is currently taking place and will continue
through the summer for departments in all areas of the university.
SACS Self-Study
OIR is very involved in supporting the SACS
Self-Study. OIR provides a significant amount of data for the
Self-Study as well as organizes and maintains the Self-Study online
library catalog.
Study of JMU Faculty
OIR has been collecting data on faculty since
1986. A study will be completed in the summer of 2001 on various
trends in faculty employment, turnover, etc.
Facilities Inventory and Utilization Reports
Each year OIR and Resource Planning submit
to SCHEV a
facilities inventory file of all space on campus. We currently
have more than 12,000 unique spaces in the file. Eventually we hope to put the inventory online so that departments
can see the specific spaces used by them and inform OIR/Resource
Planning when changes have been made.
OIR also conducts a facilities utilization file
for SCHEV. This file is used to calculate utilization statistics
for the use of classrooms and regularly scheduled labs. The
official utilization statistics will be available in July.
These statistics are part of JMU's performance measures for SCHEV.
OIR Program Review
This spring a focused program review of OIR's data
management capabilities is being conducted. Led by Dr. Robert Brookshire, the primary objective is to provide guidance to OIR
about how to manage its large data files and eventually make them
more accessible to the university community.
Student
Research
Frequently
faculty assign students research projects that involve analyzing
data about the university. OIR has an extensive Web site of data
for students to use, but sometimes the assignments prompt students
to ask us for data we do not have. It would be greatly appreciated
if you would familiarize yourself with our Web site at http://www.jmu.edu/instresrch/
if you plan to
assign student research that could involve university data. If you
contact OIR before you assign the research project, we may be able
to collect and post the data on our web site.
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Research Notes
Faculty Salaries of JMU's Peer Group, 2000-01
In 1986 the Virginia General Assembly
approved a policy to enhance the competitive position of higher
education institutions in Virginia by raising the average faculty
salary of each publicly supported higher education institution to
the 60th percentile of a group of peer institutions outside of
Virginia. Since the 1980's JMU has had three faculty salary peer
groups, the most recent one being selected in 1997. The standard source of
data on faculty salaries is the AAUP salary survey that is completed
each year in the fall and published the following spring.
When the peer groups were selected in
1986 in cooperation with institutional representatives JMU ranked
22nd out of 25 peer institutions. Due to the commitment by the
Commonwealth significant monies were designated by the General
Assembly between 1986 and 1990 to raise the average salaries. Between 1985-86 and 1989-90, the
average JMU salary increased from $29,682 to $42,618, an increase of
43.6 percent. The state budget crisis in the early 1990's
resulted in JMU's average salary rank slipping from 7th in 1989-90
to 9th in 1996-97.
In the spring of 1997 institutional
representatives met at SCHEV to select a new peer group that better
reflected the changes that have occurred at JMU since the 1980's.
The resulting peer group is a far more competitive list of institutions than the 1986
group. Institutions now considered peers include such well-known
institutions as the University of Notre Dame, the University of
Delaware, Ohio University, SUNY-Binghamton, the University of Rhode
Island, Providence College, and Texas Christian
University.
These new peer institutions as a whole
have a much higher faculty salary average than the 1986 group. In
1995-96 JMU's average salary was within $1,000 of the 60th
percentile which means that the institution was not well positioned
for needed salary increases even though the quality of JMU and its
national reputation had improved markedly since 1986. The situation
with this new peer group is far different. As can be seen in the
following link, JMU is $3,100 below the 60th percentile, an improvement from $4,500
four years ago. However, JMU continues to be ranked 12th among its peer institutions.
Additional detail on the changes in
JMU's faculty salary averages since 1993-94 can be viewed in the
following link.
Since 1993-94 only three institutions have received larger
percentage increases than JMU (30 percent). Additional salary
increases that will move JMU closer to the 60th percentile are dependent upon the actions of the
General Assembly. Given the current budget impasse in Richmond,
JMU's relative position is likely to worsen for 2001-02.
Additional questions about this Research
Notes can be addressed to the Office of
Institutional Research. Individuals who would like to view the
Web sites of these institutions are urged to follow this
link.
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