CAS Standards 

The Council for the Advancement of Standards, or CAS, is “the pre-eminent force for promoting standards in student affairs, student services, and student development programs” (About CAS, https://www.cas.edu/). CAS has many member organizations, such as ACPA, NAPSA, NODA, and many more who use these standards as best practices. 

The CAS Standards were chosen because they are applicable to all of the units at Rensselaer. Units may also have accreditation-specific requirements they must meet beyond the CAS Standards. The CAS Standards provide guidance and structure to the program review process. 

There are General Standards developed by CAS which are applicable to all units. The General Standards have twelve parts which are “the essential components and characteristics of quality programs and services” (https://www.cas.edu/generalstandards). These twelve parts are built into the unit-specific standards that are outlined in the Portfolio Breakout section of this guide.  

CAS provides standards and guidelines for each unit, and these are two different elements. Standards are required to be met for best practice and guidelines are not required, yet serve as guiding principles to aim for when making improvements if needed. 

• Standards are defined by CAS as “An individual statement framed within the context of a functional area or professional preparation program designed to provide practitioners with criteria against which to judge the quality of the programs and services offered. Each individual criterion statement, or standard, reflects an essential level of practice that, when met, represents quality practice and performance that any college or university could reasonably achieve.” (citation: https://www.cas.edu/glossary). 

• Guidelines are defined by CAS as “A statement used to clarify or amplify professional standards. Although not essential for acceptable practice, a guideline provides institutions with a description of enhanced practice that can assist in establishing, assessing, and improving programs and services.” (citation: https://www.cas.edu/glossary). 

CAS has created self-assessment guides (SAGs) for each unit to use in their program review. These will be the guiding principles for the self-evaluation process.