Planning and Assessment

The System's fall enrollment hit record highs every year during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Chancellor Propst and the Board of Regents marked some other accomplishments worth noting. Chancellor Propst asked Noah Langdale, who had just stepped down as the longtime president of Georgia State, to lead a comprehensive retrospective and prospective study of the System. He presented his report to the board in 1989. With regard to institutional and program assessment, Langdale said: "what is easy to measure is measured and is considered important in education, but what is difficult to measure is said to be unimportant and is not measured." The report identified more than a dozen "driving forces" that facilitated or impeded the System's progress, including minority access and equity and the aging of facilities, faculty, programs and services. System presidents identified boosting faculty salaries, student retention and the recruitment and retention of minority faculty and students as their most pressing concerns. Accordingly, the report's recommendations included finding ways to recognize and reward teaching faculty. Regarding assessment, the report noted an abundance of plans, but scarce evidence of planning results. The regents were encouraged to include implementation schedules with all future plans for improvements.

The regents subsequently approved a comprehensive plan for the System's continued development, including a mission statement, long-range goals and a requirement that each System institution develop structured planning and assessment processes and submit a strategic plan to the central office.

On the last day of 1988, the regents met all the necessary requirements to be in full compliance with Title VI of the Civil Right Act, meaning the System had at last fulfilled all legal obligations regarding its desegregation measures. This marked the first time since 1974 that the System's desegregation plan had not been under a court mandate or the scrutiny of federal officials.

In 1989, the board changed the institutional composition of the System by approving the creation of regional universities. Georgia Southern would become the first regional university in 1990, with Valdosta State following in 1992.