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Publications: ASA Guide for Reviewing American Studies Programs
Appendix A - Checklist of Documents to Include in Self-Study
This checklist is suggestive rather than definitive. Individual programs will want to custom-tailor the materials included in their self-study according to the program review requirements of their campus and their own specific needs. Such custom-tailoring will include determining the most effective sequence for these materials.
- Table of contents of documents included in the self-study.
- Evaluative narrative.
- Descriptive and quantitative appendices:
- One-page overview of campus--size, character, organization, structural location of the American Studies program. This overview will help off-campus reviewers understand the institutional context of the program.
- Copy of program’s description in campus’ general catalog.
- Copy of program’s advising handbook, if one exists.
- Copy of program’s degree requirements, if not included in general catalog material or advising handbook. (Separate appendices may be used for undergraduate and graduate degree requirements.)
- Detailed description of all program’s required courses and other courses considered “core” courses. This need may be met simply by including here the current syllabi from these course. (Separate appendices may be used if appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses.)
- List of participating faculty, with ranks and titles, nature of affiliations (for example, “full appointment in American Studies,” “.5 FTE in American Studies,” “member of Executive Committee,” “immediate past Director of Graduate Studies,” “non-voting affiliate"), and areas of major interest or expertise.
- Vitae of core faculty and, as useful, other actively participating faculty.
- Official description of program’s governance structure; program’s by-laws if in existence.
- Statistical data about program, perhaps over a five- or ten-year period: enrollments by level (and perhaps by specific courses, if useful); number of declared majors; number of degrees awarded; student/faculty ratio; etc. This data will likely be most useful if these statistical tables also include relevant overall campus data or data about related campus programs.
- Program budget, by functional categories and (if relevant) sources of funding, perhaps over a five- or ten-year period.
- The most recent “Institutional Data” questionnaire the program has completed as part of the American Studies Association’s [biennial] survey of American Studies program. Other appendices mentioned above may be eliminated to the extent that this questionnaire covers the same data. However, it may be useful for the program to display some of this information twice: both in the “Institutional Data” questionnaire and in a format that the program itself chooses.
- Other data that will help the reviewers understand the program or that the program is drawing upon in its evaluative narrative.
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