Faculty, staff and students are invited to comment about WSU’s qualifications for re-accreditation at 11 a.m.-noon Thursday, April 2, in Smith CUE 518. That will be an open meeting with members of the accreditation team of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
WSU’s 10-year accreditation process culminates March 30-April 3 with the visit of the NWCCU team. The team will work to verify evidence and analysis generated by WSU in its self-study. WSU’s goal is to demonstrate it is using the self-study to implement improvement.
Completed last fall, the self-study is the product of a two-year process to:
* Encourage institutional improvement.
* Assess WSU’s effectiveness and impact in meeting goals for educating undergraduate, graduate and professional students; conducting scholarship and research; and providing service/outreach.
* Evaluate the university against a set of standards that have been developed and revised over time by NWCCU members.
Those standards cover:
1. Institutional mission and goals, planning and effectiveness
2. Educational program and effectiveness
3. Students
4. Faculty
5. Library and information resources
6. Governance and administration
7. Finance
8. Physical resources
9. Institutional integrity
The self-study and other accreditation-related information are available ONLINE @ http://accreditation.wsu.edu.
WSU last was accredited by NWCCU in 1999, and that status was reaffirmed by the commission on the basis of an interim report in 2004.
The 12-person evaluation team will be led by Jay Gogue (pronounced “goodge”), president of Auburn University. Each evaluator will be assigned to specific vice presidential areas and colleges. Each also will be responsible for one or more accreditation standards.
The Tri-Cities and Vancouver campuses each will be visited by two members of the evaluation team on March 30. WSU Spokane will be visited on April 2. Evaluators will be at WSU Pullman April 1-3.
