The mission of the Office of Institutional Research is to provide and to coordinate accurate and reliable data to support decision-making, assessment, and planning activities aimed at fulfilling the stated mission and goals of Occidental College.
About
Institutional Research maintains a repository of aggregate statistics and information about students, faculty and staff, alumni, and various aspects of the college. The office also coordinates efforts and provides data for federal and state mandated reporting (including accreditation), college guides and other external publications. In addition, the office regularly produces research for senior leadership, administrative offices, college committees, academic departments, and faculty on the student experience, student outcomes, performance indicators, benchmarking and comparisons to other institutions, and performs ad-hoc analyses to support a variety of assessment efforts.
Some of the data within this site is open to the general public and some is restricted to internal audiences.
The statistics presented here are official, but there may be many ways of reporting and interpreting similar data.
Function and Roles
- Serve as a reliable source for comprehensive and authoritative current and historical statistics about the College.
- Work with other College constituencies to coordinate and to ensure the accuracy of data for federal and state mandated reporting (including accreditation), national statistical surveys, questionnaires, college guides and other external publications, and other non-routine requests for information. The office serves as a primary contact with state and federal agencies and several professional organizations with respect to information reporting.
- Develop and maintain a cycle of regular institutional studies, reports and databases designed to support recurring decision needs of the institution. Produce educational and organizational studies, reports, and summaries per non-routine internal needs.
- Serve as the central office for institutional surveying and survey research, including maintaining the institutional survey policy, annual survey calendar, and coordinating institutional surveys and survey research.
- Serve as a resource for techniques of institutional research, research methodologies and the design and execution of information systems and surveys.
- Review and audit records to ensure the integrity of institutional data and data definitions, and to coordinate with others so that needed data fields are collected, updated, and accurately maintained.
Statement of Ethical Principles
Occidental College’s Office of Institutional Research strongly endorses and operates within the Association for Institutional Research’s Statement of Ethical Principles.