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1. What is SACS?
The Commission on Colleges of the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools is the
recognized regional accrediting body in the
eleven U.S. Southern states (Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia) and in Latin America for those
institutions of higher education that award
associate, baccalaureate, master's or doctoral
degrees. The Commission on Colleges is the
representative body of the College Delegate
Assembly and is charged with carrying out the
accreditation process.
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2. What is accreditation?
Accreditation is intended to assure
constituents and the public of the quality and
integrity of higher education institutions and
programs, and to help those institutions and
programs improve. These outcomes are achieved
through rigorous internal and external review
processes during which the institution is
evaluated against a common set of standards.
When accreditation is awarded to an institution
of higher education by the Commission on
Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools, a regional accrediting agency
recognized by the United States Department of
Education, it means that the institution has (1)
a mission appropriate to higher education, (2)
resources, programs, and services sufficient to
accomplish and sustain its mission, (3) clearly
specified educational objectives that are
consistent with its mission and appropriate to
the degrees it offers, and that it is (4)
successful in achieving its stated objectives.
Accreditation is a statement of the
institution’s continuing commitment to integrity
and its capacity to provide effective programs
and services based on agreed-upon accreditation
standards.
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3. What are the SACS requirements?
The SACS requirements are called the
Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for
Quality Enhancement. They are a list of 73
principles and standards that we need to meet in
order to be in full compliance with SACS and
receive our reaffirmation of accreditation.
Access to the list of principles and standards
is found at
http://www.sacscoc.org/principles.asp
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4. How is this SACS reaffirmation different from
previous self-studies?
Ten years ago, when WCJC was last reviewed, a
large number of SACS external reviewers visited
campus and primarily were involved with WCJC's
self-appointed campus SACS team. Also, faculty
participated in scores of committees that
required much time and effort throughout the
process.
Not so this time. To summarize the differences:
- There is no self-study document per se
this time. Instead, WCJC will submit two
major reports - a Compliance Certification,
to be submitted first, and a Quality
Enhancement Plan, to be submitted several
months later.
- The QEP is a much more focused report
that outlines a major initiative tied to
student learning.
- There will only be one site visit, and
it will occur in fall 2008. Between six and
eight reviewers will be on campus for three
days. They will review any areas of concern
raised by the off-site team. Their chief
purpose, however, is to talk to WCJC’s
faculty, staff and students about the QEP.
They will write a report about WCJC’s
compliance with all of the SACS Commission
on Colleges reaffirmation criteria.
SACS wants WCJC to provide clear-cut
objectives, ways to measure the outcomes of
those objectives and proof that those objectives
are being continued into the future - all
focused on the primary desired outcome of
quality education for the student.
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SACS Then and Now
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Then
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Now
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The
Criteria for Accreditation
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The
Principles of Accreditation
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Compliance
with 475-plus detailed and prescriptive
"must" statements |
Compliance
with 73 "core" and "comprehensive"
statements |
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Completion of an extensive and
evaluative self-study report |
Submission
of a concise compliance certification
report (no self-study) |
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A
self-study steering committee and a
dozen or more self-study committees
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A small
leadership team overseeing compliance
certification reporting |
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Coordination by the institution's
self-study director every 10 years
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Continuous
annual coordination by the institution's
accreditation liaison |
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Faculty-dominated self-study evaluations
and report preparation |
Administrator-dominated compliance
certification with a faculty-dominated
Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
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An on-site
peer review committee's validation of
institutional compliance with the
Criteria |
An
off-site peer review committee's
validation of institutional compliance
with the Principles |
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An on-site
committee that reviews voluminous hard
copy documentation (a physical documents
room) |
An
off-site committee that accesses an
electronic archive of focused
documentation and interactive reference
data (a virtual documents room)
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An on-site
peer committee's validation of
institutional compliance that is
independent of other institutions'
reviews |
The
simultaneous validation of compliance
for a half-dozen institutions by the
same off-site peer review committee
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Self-study
orientations, preparations and peer
reviews that are conducted on a schedule
that is unique to each institution
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Compliance
orientations, preparations and peer
reviews that are conducted on a common
schedule for Track A institutions and
separately for Track B institutions each
year |
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Campus-wide involvement that focuses on
institutional compliance with "must"
statements |
Campus-wide involvement that focuses on
Quality Enhancement Planning (QEP) for
improved student learning and on the
environment supporting student learning |
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An on-site
peer review that involves a large
visiting committee comprised of many
different specialists examining all
operations |
An on-site
peer review that involves a small
visiting committee comprised of
specialists focused primarily on the QEP
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A project
in which IT personnel play minor roles
in self-study preparation and technical
support for the on-site visit
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A project
in which IT personnel play major
mission-critical roles in designing and
activating electronic information
centers needed for off-site access and
validation of compliance |
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5. How can I be
involved in WCJC's reaffirmation process?
Be involved
with the QEP! Ask how by sending an email to
QEPCommittee@wcjc.edu
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6. What does WCJC
have to do for SACS?
WCJC must prepare
a report that shows that WCJC is in compliance
with the SACS Principles of Accreditation. This
report is due in March, 2008. In addition, WCJC
must prepare a Quality Enhancement Plan for
submission in September, 2008.
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7. I've still got
questions. How do I ask questions about WCJC and
SACS?
Please send
an email to
sacs@wcjc.edu
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8. What is the point
of the QEP?
The QEP is
a five year plan designed to enhance the quality
of student learning by focusing on a theme and
specific student outcomes. Visit the QEP webpage
for more information:
http://www.wcjc.edu/SACS/QualityEnhancementPlan.html
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9. When do these QEP
initiatives begin?
If our plan is
approved, Fall 2009. The SACS site visit will be
October, 2008.
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10. What will the
Off-site Committee do?
The Off-Site Peer
Review Committee, composed of a chair and
normally eight to ten evaluators, meets in
Atlanta, Georgia, and reviews Compliance
Certifications of a group of institutions to
determine whether each institution is in
compliance with all Core Requirements (except
Core Requirement 2.12), Comprehensive Standards,
and Federal Requirements. The group of
institutions evaluated, called a cluster,
normally will consist of no more than four
institutions similar in governance and degrees
offered. At the conclusion of the review, the
Off-Site Peer Review Committee will prepare a
separate report for each institution, recording
and explaining its decisions regarding
compliance. The report is forwarded to the
respective institution’s On-Site Review
Committee which makes its final determination on
compliance.
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11. What will the
On-site Committee do when it comes to WCJC?
Following review
by the Off-Site Committee, an On-Site Review
Committee of peers will conduct a focused
evaluation at the campus to finalize issues of
compliance with the Core Requirements,
Comprehensive Standards, and Federal
Requirements; provide consultation regarding the
issues addressed in the QEP; and evaluate the
acceptability of the QEP. At the conclusion of
its visit, the On-Site Review Committee will
prepare the Report of the Reaffirmation
Committee, a written report of its findings
noting areas of non-compliance, including the
acceptability of the QEP. The Report of the
Reaffirmation Committee, along with the
institution’s response to areas of
non-compliance, will be forwarded to the
Commission for review and action.
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12. What happens after
the On-site Committee leaves WCJC?
The On-Site
Committee submits its report to the Commission.
The institution prepares a response to the
On-Site Committee’s report and submits it to the
Commission. The Commission reviews the findings
included in the report of the On-Site Committee
and the institution’s response and takes action
on the institution’s reaffirmation.
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13. Is it unusual for
a college to receive recommendations?
No. In fact,
recommendations are common.
The Commission staff communicates to the
institution the findings of the report prepared
by the Off-Site Review Committee. The
institution may choose to submit a Focused
Report in response to the committee’s findings.
The On-Site Committee receives a written copy of
the Off-Site Committee’s report and the
institution’s Focused Report, if one is
submitted.
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14. Do recommendations
threaten accreditation?
Yes, they will if
the institution does not take appropriate and
acceptable action to come into compliance with
the criteria.
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15. What happens to
the college's response to the recommendations?
The Commissions’
Compliance and Reports (C&R) Committee will
receive and review the report of the On-Site
Review Committee, the response of the
institution to the committee’s report, the
institution’s Compliance Certification, and its
Quality Enhancement Plan. The full Commission
will receive the C&R Committee report and will
make a decision regarding the reaffirmation of
the institution’s accreditation and any
follow-up activities that it requires of the
institution. The Commission makes decisions
regarding accreditation status twice each year —
in June for Track A institutions and in December
for Track B institutions.
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16. What options does
the Commission on Colleges have in regard to
accreditation?
The Commission on
Colleges (COC) can reaffirm an institution's
accreditation with or without requiring
additional follow-up reports. It can grant
reaffirmation but place an institution on Notice
for a maximum of a year or defer reaffirmation
until the next COC meeting while awaiting
compliance reports. The COC can deny
reaffirmation and place a college on either
Warning or Probation for up to two years.
Lastly, the COC can deny an institution
reaffirmation and remove it from membership in
the Commission on Colleges. The status of an
institution's accreditation becomes public
knowledge when accreditation actions are read in
open session at the College Delegate Assembly
and published in the Proceedings of the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools.
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17. When will the
Commission on Colleges announce a decision about the
accreditation status of WCJC?
The Commission on
Colleges will make a decision about the
accreditation status of WCJC at its December
2009 meeting and announce its findings at
College Delegate Assembly.
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