The Imago Dei Initiative

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) requires each of its member institutions to plan and implement a quality enhancement plan. The SACSCOC requirements include:

• SACSCOC Core Requirement 2.12
  The institution has developed an acceptable Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that includes an institutional process identifying key issues emerging from institutional assessment and focuses on learning outcomes and/or the environment supporting student learning and accomplishing the mission of the institution.
• SACSCOC Comprehensive Standard 3.3.2
  The institution has developed a Quality Enhancement Plan that (1) demonstrates institutional capability for the initiation, implementation and completion of the QEP; (2) includes broad-based involvement of institutional constituencies in the development and proposed implementation of the QEP; and (3) identifies goals and a plan to assess their achievement.

QEP Overview

The Asbury University 2019-2029 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), The Imago Dei Initiative: Embracing Cultural Responsibility aims to foster and cultivate cultural competency as an institutional initiative. The focus of this plan is consonant with, and motivated by, our school’s theological understanding grounded within the Wesleyan tradition. Specifically, we believe that all humans bear God’s image, that we are both relationally constituted and situated in differing cultural contexts that shape our understanding of the social order, and that the cultivation of “cultural responsibility,” wherein we understand and appreciate each other not simply as individuals but as products of these differing cultural contexts, is an earthly development of a heavenly reality. Across the University, steps will be taken to enhance hospitality on campus, to diversify the student body, faculty, and staff, and to present a clear theological premise underlying these pursuits.

Updated QEP Prospectus for Asbury University

QEP Student Learning Outcomes

The following student learning outcomes for the project were identified once the topic was determined and further discussion of the data occurred:

1. Knowledge
   1. Students will articulate a Biblical understanding of cultural diversity
   2. Students will be able to define cultural responsibility
   3. Students will demonstrate understanding of one’s own cultural identity
   4. Students will be able to interpret one’s own direct experience of cultural identity
2. Skills
   1. Students will demonstrate empathy and awareness in interpersonal interactions
   2. Students will be able to effectively engage cultures outside their own
   3. Students will conduct self-appraisal to enhance cultural awareness
3. Attitudes
   1. Students will display humility in inter- and intra-cultural interactions

QEP Timeline

Asbury University has identified the following timeline for the development of its next Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP):

Timeline for QEP at Asbury University

February 2017

• A comprehensive review of relevant data about campus needs
• Make final selection of QEP topic
• Initiate detailed plan development
• Finish the final draft of QEP Plan
• Complete QEP Plan
• Submit QEP Plan to SACSCOC
• Host the On-Site Evaluation Visit by SACSCOC Staff and Evaluation Team
• Implement QEP

View the complete QEP below.

For more information about the University’s 2019 QEP (The Imago Dei Initiative: Embracing Cultural Responsibility) or the QEP planning process, please contact The Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning at assessment@asbury.edu.