Asst. v.p. named head of national organization

Michael F. Middaugh recently won the Association for Institutional Research's annual election. As a result, the UD assistant vice president for institutional research and planning will begin a three-year term in May 1999, which includes a year each as vice president (1999-2000), president (2000-01) and immediate past president (2001-02).

A member of the worldwide organization since 1980, Middaugh has served on a number of national and regional committees and as forum chair. In that role, he was chairperson of the group's 1997 annual meeting. From 1989-90, he was president of the North East Association for Institutional Research, a post that UD institutional research and planning colleague Karen Bauer now holds.

Middaugh said the 3,000-member organization includes representatives from 1,500 universities and colleges throughout the U.S. and around the world. Its goal is to serve as an advisory body to a number of educational oriented organizations, including the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics--currently headed by Pat Forgione, former head of the state of Delaware Department of Public Instruction.

Information collected and analyzed by institutional researchers at institutions around the country is used to help make decisions on a wide range of issues associated with educational policy, Middaugh said.

"People in institutional research," he said, "provide policy analysis that can be used in higher education decision making. But," he added, "it goes far beyond the strict academic issues of an institution. Our research can focus on such areas as construction, registration, faculty productivity, human resources planning, as well as financial aid and admissions research.

"Solid academic planning needs good information," Middaugh added. "And, in order to make good decisions, you have to have good information. It's the job of institutional research to objectively gather the information and put recommendations together."

In the early 1980s, he said, the University's institutional research office was publishing between 100 to 150 reports a year.

"The office was counting things," he said. "It used to put together tables that were so complex that it would make your eyes bleed, and then the reports would sit on a shelf and gather dust. The key is to distill that information into a form that is concise, digestible and usable."

Today, Middaugh's office produces several reports a year, but each has a variety of purposes. Many studies are in response to specific requests, and the results will be used. The focus of other efforts may originate from suggestions by institutional research staff, who are being proactive and are suggesting reports they believe address upcoming University needs and issues.

"In the last 15 years," he said, "I think the office has gone from a traditional number-crunching operation and into a mode where we are actively providing dynamic information for the president, provost and executive vice president on the full spectrum of University operations."

Over the years, Middaugh said it has become apparent that "the University of Delaware is perceived as a national leader in a number of areas. We are doing a lot of creative and innovative studies, and our institutional research office has the ability to identify issues and pull information together in support of the University's needs and the needs of higher education in general. This is what has positioned us as a national leader in this field," Middaugh added.

In addition, Middaugh said, University administrators have held significant leadership roles in a number of national educational and professional organizations in their respective fields. Dave Hollowell, executive vice president, has served as president of the Society for College and University Planning. Susan Foster, vice president of information technologies, was president of EDUCAUSE, a national computing society. The late Tom Vacha was president of the Association of Physical Plant Administrators.

"The fact that we do our jobs as well as we do here," Middaugh said, "has set the University up as a national model."

In 1994, the Association for Institutional Research and North East Association for Institutional Research published Strategies for the Practice of Institutional Research: Concepts, Resources and Application.

That book, coauthored by Middaugh and two other UD institutional research staff members--Bauer and Dale Trusheim--was based on a 1989 handbook written by Middaugh.

More recently, Middaugh's article, "How Much Do Faculty Really Teach?" was published in the winter 1998-99 issue of Planning for Higher Education, The Journal of the Society for College and University Planning.

--Ed Okonowicz

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