Welcome to Wayne Communiity College

OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

Accreditation:

SACS Commission on Colleges
NC Regional Meeting on Accreditation Review Project
October 10, 2000

Synopsis

The Accreditation Review Project is a comprehensive review of both accreditation requirements and peer review process. If approved, it will replace the current Criteria and process.

Features of proposed changes:

  • Increased attention to quality enhancement
  • Increased attention to student learning outcomes
  • Greater flexibility in addressing these requirements
  • More institutional accountability/responsibility
  • More focused on-site review
  • Increased consistency in application by visiting teams
  • Emphasis on learning and learning environment
  • Strong culture of institutional integrity essential
  • College mission and commitment to improve taken into account
  • More analysis of critical issues, less descriptive narrative
  • More forward thinking rather than historical
  • Shorter time frame for reaccredidation efforts
  • Maintains 10 year accreditation cycle

General sense of NC regional meeting:

  • Heading in a good direction overall
  • Some concerns on individual requirements and wording

Pilot of new model

8 institutions selected for pilot, including 2 community colleges:

John Tyler CC (VA) and Richmond College (TX)

Pilot institutions will explore potential for electronic submissions in the accreditation process

Implementation Calendar for New Model

  • October 2000 Regional Meetings and Website Call for Comments
  • November 2000 Task Force Meetings to review comments received and make revisions
  • December 2000 Sessions on new model at SACS Annual Meeting
  • March 2001 Final Call for Comments
  • April/May 2001 Task Force Meetings to review comments received and make revisions
  • June 2001 Commission Meeting re Bylaws
  • October 2001 Final Proposal to members
  • December 2001 Vote on new model at SACS Annual Meeting
  • 2002 First SACS letters to colleges up for renewal in 2004
  • 2003 SACS Letters to colleges up for renewal in 2005

New process under construction, goes on website after December 2000 Meeting

Six Components of Accreditation

  • Acceptable Improvement Report
  • Compliance with Principles of Integrity
  • Compliance with Core Requirements (12)
  • Compliance with Comprehensive Requirements (60)
  • Compliance with federal Title IV (Student Assistance) Requirements (6)
  • Visiting committee of peers

Four distinct college documents

Expanded annual institutional profile 

  • Collect data year to year to monitor health of institution 
  • Examples: enrollment data, graduation rates

Certification of compliance 

  • Starts with SACS letter in year 8; due in September of year 9 
  • Administrative in nature, probably a small group prepares this 
  • Item by item statements re compliance with requirements 
  • Yes/no format with "why we say that" and "what we need to do to fix" 
  • Some documentation required 
  • To be signed by CEO and Accreditation Liaison

Portfolio of evidence (patterns of evidence) 

  • Copies or locations of all supporting documentation 
  • Some sent in, some for onsite

Improvement/Enhancement report 

  • Requires broad campus involvement 
  • Topic emerges from critical issues identified in college planning; can't be 
  • arbitrarily selected 
  • Similar to Alternative Model currently used 
  • Creates a blueprint of how to improve 
  • Viewed as 100 page document: 75 narrative, 25 appendices

Use of Documents by Commission

Peer review of each document submitted
3 layers of review:

  • Offsite review with perhaps 10 like institutions reviewed together; produces a report which guides the on-site review of each and increases consistency of on-site review
  • On-site review (changed from current model); produces visiting team report
  • Commission of Colleges review of visiting team report plus college response

Additional points:

  • Faculty credentials are listed as guidelines, not must statements
  • Continuing education instructors and developmental faculty credentials are not prescribed
  • Institutional effectiveness continues to be important; expectations continue to rise
  • Expectations for IE can be met in many ways, less prescriptive than before
  • Following a college's published policies is considered a matter of integrity
  • Moving away from the term "self-study"
  • The term "learning resources" has replaced "library"
  • SACS concept of "mission" is broader than "purpose"