Accountability and Management Report

Background

The Texas A&M University System Accountability and Management Report (SAMR) was developed at the request of the Board of Regents and will be produced annually in the spring. It includes more extensive data than the quarterly System Executive Management Report, which it replaces, and it also includes a narrative report from each institution detailing mission, priority goals and objectives and a report on accomplishments toward those goals and objectives.

The SAMR will be an integral part of the planning, assessment and budgeting cycle of The Texas A&M University System. The user will find a wide range of academic and fiscal information, performance measures and trend data designed to address key issues and assist in the evaluation of member performance at the institutional level. Information from the SAMR will provide the input for the Board’s Programmatic Budget Review held each March. The SAMR is also intended to be a part of the annual review of chief executive officers of each System member.

The data contained in the report was developed with extensive input from across the System through a series of working committees and a steering committee led by Dr. Leo Sayavedra, Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs. The working committees involved representatives from academic affairs, agencies, fiscal offices, and institutional researchers.
Soon after work began on the SAMR, Governor Rick Perry issued an executive order mandating a statewide accountability system for higher education, which included the universities and the Health Science Center, but not the agencies. The SAMR was developed in parallel with the state project and incorporates the measures and targets mandated by it. In fact, work on the SAMR was halted in order to participate fully in the state project.

Following delivery of the State Accountability Report in late December 2004, the System returned to its accountability project. This report, in its present form, represents the first draft of an accountability report for the A&M System. As the national dialogue about excellence in higher education continues and the System continues its participation in that dialogue, the SAMR will continue to be reviewed and updated.

The Report

The SAMR contains an Executive Summary, which includes information on the universities as well as some on the Health Science Center and the agencies, especially with regard to research because those endeavors are so intertwined. However, because the missions of the Health Science Center and each agency are so distinct, these members are covered primarily within their stand alone reports. The Executive Summary is supplemented by several pages of data.
The member reports include the written report covering mission, priority goals and objectives and commentary on those goals and objectives as well as several pages of data. For the universities and the health science center, there is also commentary on a specific list of topics including enrollment, affordability, graduation rates and graduates, developmental education (except for the Health Science Center), diversity, faculty, academic excellence, research, fund raising, fiscal stability, and operational efficiencies. The agencies in addition to commenting on their top priorities and goals were asked to comment on diversity, research (as applicable), external funding, fiscal stability and operational efficiencies.

The appendix to the report includes three documents: statement of purpose for each measure, definitions for the measures, and a listing of the people who participated in the System Accountability Task Force.

Member Reports