Skip to main content

Provost announces changes to academic planning and institutional research offices

The Office of the Provost has renamed its academic planning and reporting units to Academic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness.

“We are updating Zeynep Hansen’s title and unit to Academic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness to better reflect the scope of her role, which already includes a majority of the functions considered commonplace in institutional effectiveness across higher education,” Provost John Buckwalter said.

According to the Association for Higher Education Effectiveness institutional effectiveness “intentionally integrate(s) multiple functions (strategic planning, institutional research, assessment, accreditation, program review) to promote and support evidence-based planning and improvement.”

Hansen, with Andrew Finstuen, currently oversees strategic plan implementation and program prioritization, and Institutional Research (to be renamed the Office of Institutional Effectiveness) also reports to her. Shari Ellertson will continue to lead the Office of Institutional Effectiveness as the Senior Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness, providing oversight for program assessment as well as providing data and analyses to inform decision-making, continuous improvement, and external reporting.

Additionally, this change incorporates Erin Muggli’s role as senior project manager for strategic planning and academic initiatives into Academic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness. Muggli’s role includes project management of university-wide strategic plan implementation, coordination of divisional and unit-level strategic initiatives with the university’s strategic plan, and facilitating alignment between the university’s strategic plan and the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities accreditation standards to demonstrate and track Boise State’s mission fulfillment.

“This shift reflects the university’s ongoing commitment to improvement,” said Hansen. “Shari and her team support effectiveness in multiple ways already, so this new name additionally places the focus on the outcome of their work – effectiveness.”

The change in office names is effective immediately and will be implemented across all communications in the coming months.