We covered many topics in October, including highlighting three new initiatives, reviewing Tableau visualizations, and checking in on the data modernization project. If you have questions, please reach out to us—we are here to help.
Initiative #1: New standards for federal data on race/ethnicity
The federal government released new standards for collecting, maintaining, and reporting data on race and ethnicity. The updated standards better reflect the growing diversity of the United States’s population and will improve the quality and usefulness of the data collected.
The new standards are effective immediately. Changes include:
- Combining race and ethnicity into one question.
- Adding a Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) category.
- Refining and updating several existing category descriptions.
UW–Madison has convened a task force led by Scott Owczarek, Associate Vice Provost and Interim Director of Student Financial Aid, and Bethany Crowell, Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Research and Decision Support, to ensure the university meets the new regulations on time.
Initiative #2: Financial Value Transparency & Gainful Employment (FVT&GE)
New regulations from the Department of Education seek to enhance transparency by providing information about financial costs and benefits to students for academic programs at UW–Madison. As an outcome of these new regulations, institutions whose value metrics are unsatisfactory must notify students.
Bethany Crowell and Scott Owczarek are leading a task force UW–Madison to ensure the university complies with these new federal regulations and submits the required reports.
Initiative #3: Survey Assessment & Review Committee
Because of the high demand to survey the UW–Madison community, the Office of the Provost created the Survey Assessment & Review Committee to provide better coordination and reduce survey fatigue. Similar structures have successfully been implemented at other institutions.
Units interested in conducting surveys of UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff would be expected to engage with the Committee if their desired survey meets the requirements. Updates will be provided as the committee progresses in its work.
Updated Tableau Visualizations
We discussed the Trends in Degrees and the Trends in Enrollments data visualizations (Net ID required). These visualizations show degrees and enrollment data that can be broken down by major, academic level, and many other categories. They were recently updated to include more recent data. If you have questions about these visualizations, please contact DAPIR institutional policy analyst Noah Natzke.
Next steps for the data modernization project
The data modernization project continues to move forward. Denodo’s proof of concept was successful, and we are in the initial steps of securing the product—more information will come soon.
Questions? Email us at dapir@provost.wisc.edu.