Sen. Doc. No. 93-026Special Report of the Academic Priorities Council on Increasing theValidity of Academic Program Data Related to Faculty ProductivityDuring the 1991-1992 academic year, the Academic Priorities Council reviewed the processesthat had been used in prior years to reduce school and college budgets, and to reduce and eliminateprograms.We concluded that existing procedures needed refinement, even though we recognized thatdifferent processes might be used in the future.Thus we endeavored to recommend steps so thatsafeguards would be in place in the event that either thesameprocesses were used again or thatnewelimination or reduction procedures were developed.In addition to being concerned about the lack of an operational definition ofcentrality—discussed in a separate special report—we were aware of assertions that many of the decisionsreferred to above were based on data of questionable validity.
