Second annual report from the NCA Self-Study Monitoring Committee presented to the Board of Trustees

Second annual report from the NCA Self-Study Monitoring Committee presented to the Board of Trustees

The Monitoring Committee presented its second annual report to the Board of Trustees at its meeting Oct. 20. The report, summarizing observations and comments on the 2005-2006 academic year, briefly delineates the progress made in addressing each of the self-study recommendations and constitutes a chronology designed to assist in preparation for the next university accreditation visit by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, scheduled for 2013.

The overarching goal of accreditation is to continually review, assess, and modify the institutional structure, processes, and curriculum in fulfillment of the educational mission. To this end, the Board of Trustees further charged the self-study team with a post-accreditation monitoring role.

Among the developments highlighted as significant in responding to the self-study recommendations were the staff pay-for-performance system, the Shared Governance Plan (including the creation of a Faculty Senate and expanding faculty representation on key committees), the submission of the Report of the Core Curriculum Task Force to the Faculty Senate, and the application to the Carnegie Foundation for elective classification as a community engaged institution.

The committee’s report acknowledged the controversies of the 2005-2006 academic year, the continuing challenges to strengthen student outcome assessment, and ongoing efforts to address the "climate of disengagement" on campus.

A table listing the recommendations under the five HLC criteria (mission, resources, assessment, planning and integrity) and summarizing the reported status of 2005-2006 efforts to address those recommendations accompanied the report.

Respectfully submitted:
John Kemper and Angeline Barretta-Herman, Self-Study Co-chairs
Joseph Kreitzer, Terence Nichols, Margaret Reif, Peter Parilla and Daniel Gjelten