UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform at Penn State has partnered with the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, which is the nation’s oldest and largest event focused on higher education assessment and improvement, to create a new fraternity and sorority life-oriented program as part of the 2022 Assessment Institute this October.
The Assessment Institute is hosted by IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis), one of the core campuses of Indiana University. IUPUI represents a partnership between Indiana and Purdue universities. In addition to offering a longstanding national conference, the Assessment Institute produces "Assessment Update," an award-winning, bimonthly publication from Wiley with a national readership; the "Trends in Assessment" book series from Stylus Publishing; and "Leading Improvements in Higher Education," an award-winning podcast profiling people, initiatives, institutions and organizations improving conditions in higher education.
The Piazza Center and the Assessment Institute share a commitment to inform professional practice and provide continued professional development for practitioners in the higher education ecosystem, and will benefit from sustained relationships with and the intellectual contributions of many partners from across the higher education landscape, including organizations, resource groups, individual scholars and varied publications.
Stevan Veldkamp, Piazza Center executive director, explained that this partnership will help in providing resources to fraternity and sorority headquarter organizations and campuses so that they may assess the learning occurring in fraternities and sororities.
“Ask any alumni member of a fraternity and sorority about what they learned in their chapter. Now imagine we resource fraternities and sororities with the tools to ask students what they are learning,” said Veldkamp. “Focusing on the assessment of students is a pathway for fraternities and sororities to become integral partners with campus undergraduate education.”
“On behalf of the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis, I am excited to partner with the Piazza Center to advance student learning, assessment and improvement in fraternity and sorority contexts,” said Stephen Hundley, chair of the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis. “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial affiliation.”
For the 2022 Assessment Institute, the Piazza Center will curate and serve as the principal adviser for new fraternity and sorority life content. Session topics will include information on using existing organizational data, assessing fraternities and sororities as agents of civic and community engagement, assessing learning outcomes, appraising hazing and hazardous drinking, and creating a student-centered assessment program.
The Piazza Center was a featured guest on Season 2, Episode 7 of the "Leading Improvements in Higher Education" podcast, discussing learning and assessment within fraternity and sorority life. In addition to being available on various podcast streaming services and apps, the episode is available on the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis website.