University Program Assessment Committee (UPAC)
A page within Academic Affairs
The University Program Assessment Committee (UPAC) provides feedback to academic programs to support their efforts to assess student learning and make improvements based on the results.
The UPAC process is aligned with Academic Program Review (APR). Departments/programs submit an assessment report to the UPAC at two timepoints as they move towards the completion of their APR self-study:
- 5 years out from APR review
- 2 years out from APR review
Review this spreadsheet for specific deadlines for programs in upcoming review cycles.
The UPAC has established a report template and an evaluation rubric to guide and support programs as they document their assessment activities. Completed reports are submitted to a dedicated Canvas course.
UPAC Review Process
Each program that is not exempt from UPAC participation is expected to submit two assessment reports to UPAC during a single APR cycle. Assessment reports are due on February 15th of the academic years that are five-years and two-years prior to that programs next APR review.
The annual UPAC timeline of activities is outlined below.
- Early/Mid Fall: UPAC chair sends an email to each program that communicates the assessment review process and the February 15th deadline.
- February 15: Deadline for programs to upload their assessment report to Canvas. The program will notify both the UPAC chair and the University Assessment Director of their submission. Programs may request extensions if this deadline is not feasible.
- Upon submission: UPAC reviews a submission and sends their review back to the submitter. Any disagreements between the submitter and UPAC are discussed by those parties.
The Assessment Report Template provides an outline of the content the UPAC expects in your report. This Word document includes annotations to guide you through each section as you prepare your report. The UPAC will review assessment reports using this Evaluation Rubric.
A review letter will be written to highlight strengths of the department and areas for growth in their assessment practice. This letter will then be forwarded to the submitter. If a program does not agree with any portion of this UPAC evaluation, UPAC will work with that program to resolve those issues. At the end of each academic year, UPAC will gather the assessment reports, the UPAC evaluations, and a listing of those programs that were expected to submit yet did not. UPAC will then forward this documentation to both UAPR and GAPR. The APR committees expect to refer to these UPAC reports when they review a programs assessment component.
Programs should submit their assessment report via a Canvas web site. Please notify via email both the University Assessment Director, Patrick Barlow at pbarlow@uwlax.edu, as well as the chair of UPAC upon submission.
Programs Exempt from the UPAC Process
Since UWL has a number of externally accredited programs and teacher education programs certified by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), the UPAC does not review programs who instead get regular feedback on their assessment work from these accrediting bodies or the DPI. If you have questions on your department or programs relationship to the UPAC process, please contact the UPAC Chair (Bryan Kopp, bkopp@uwlax.edu) or the University Assessment Coordinator (Patrick Barlow, pbarlow@uwlax.edu).
2024-2025 Committee Membership
| Name | Department/College | UPAC Role |
| Bryan Kopp, Chair | English, CASSH | Faculty Committee Appointment |
| Weixu Lu | CST, CASSH | Faculty Committee Appointment |
| Nilakshi Borah | Finance, CBA | Faculty Committee Appointment |
| Mehtap Eklund | Accountancy, CBA | Faculty Committee Appointment |
| Karen Hart | English, CASSH | Faculty Committee Appointment |
| Terry Lilley | RGSS, CASSH | Assessment Associate |
| Megan Litster | Health Prof, CSH | Assessment Associate |
| Sam Cocks | Philosophy, CASSH | Assessment Associate |
| Cordial Gillette | ESS, CSH | Assessment Associate |
| Patrick Barlow | IRAP, Academic Affairs | Assessment Associate |
