Released: June 30, 2000
During the 1998 fall semester, Dr. Larry Kelley, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning at The University of Louisiana at Monroe, developed the concept for the Consortium for Assessment and Planning Support (CAPS). Hundreds of e-mails and fax messages later, CAPS has grown into an international organization composed of over 300 assessment and planning specialists from 43 states, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., Canada, Japan, Micronesia and Europe.
The mission of CAPS is to provide a forum through which practitioners in the field of higher education can share information and find group solutions to day-to-day challenges in assessment and institutional planning. To accomplish this mission, members communicate primarily via an Internet list server. Information is also provided through the CAPS web site and annual national and international conferences.
Over 90 individuals attended the first CAPS conference in the University Conference Center at ULM in April 1999. The inaugural event was followed by conferences at Indiana State University and The University of Hawaii at Hilo in spring and summer, 2000. Participants at these events numbered 115 and 180, respectively. Future conference sites have already been secured. These include Fort Mitchell, Ky., and San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2001, California State University at Fullerton in 2002 and Northwest Missouri State University in 2003.
CAPS Executive Board members work at colleges and universities in Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington. Larry Kelley serves as the Executive Director of the organization, which is based at The University of Louisiana at Monroe. The CAPS web site can be accessed at http://web.indstate.edu/oirt/caps.