North Central Association accreditation site visit is Nov. 6-8

Nearly two years of work preparing for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's decennial accreditation review culminates in a site visit Nov. 6-8 by a 14-member external review team.

The team, chaired by Phillip Jones, vice president for student services at the University of Iowa, will spend three days at UNL interviewing faculty, staff and students. It will deliver a brief preliminary report to Chancellor Harvey Perlman the last day of the visit and submit a final written report within nine to 10 weeks.

While the team will spend the bulk of its time in pre-scheduled meetings, several open sessions have been scheduled to allow input from faculty, staff, students and the public. The open meeting with staff is scheduled from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 7 in the Nebraska Union. An open meeting with students will be from 3 to 4 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Nebraska Union. Simultaneous open meetings with faculty are scheduled for 3 to 4 p.m. Nov. 7 in both the Nebraska Union and the Nebraska East Union. The open meeting for the public will be from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Van Brunt Visitors Center.

UNL is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The North Central Association, founded in 1895, is one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States. Through its commissions it accredits, and thereby grants membership to educational institutions in states in the North Central region: Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Accreditation is important for a number of reasons. Accreditation assures the public that an institution meets threshold levels of quality, and it provides an incentive for improvement. Student financial aid and most research funding from federal and other sources are granted only to those studying or working at accredited institutions. Additionally, most institutions will accept transfer credits only from accredited institutions.

The process requires intense self-scrutiny as an institution undergoes a self-study to ascertain that it fulfills a number of requirements laid out by the Higher Learning Commissions; the process also requires that persons from other organizations evaluate the institution's analysis by visiting the institution.

UNL's self-study, completed earlier this fall, can be found on the Web at www.unl.edu/svcaa/accreditation. The nearly 300-page document was written by a team of faculty, staff and administrators using information gathered by groups of faculty and administrators charged with determining how UNL fulfills the commission's five criteria -- mission and integrity; preparing for the future; student learning and effective teaching; acquisition, discovery and application of knowledge; and engagement and service. Each criteria point has a number of sub-questions that institutions must fulfill. Early drafts were posted on the Web; feedback was solicited and received from across the university community.

UNL has opted to undergo a special emphasis review in addition to a standard review. The special emphasis review will focus on UNL's academic strategic planning efforts. Marlene I. Strathe, provost and senior vice president of Oklahoma State University, leads the special emphasis review team. The goal of this review is gain advice and input into UNL's strategic planning process. The team will not comment on the particular outcomes of UNL's process, but is expected to comment on the process itself and offer ways to improve the process to make it more useful and meaningful.

The team will have a workroom in the Great Hall of the Kauffman Center. Most of its interviews will occur in either the Nebraska Union or the East Union.

UNL has been continuously accredited since 1913; the last review occurred in 1996-97.

SIDEBAR

The self-study process undertaken to prepare for the accreditation yielded several useful findings, according to Jim O'Hanlon, former dean of the UNL Teachers College and accreditation team leader.

First, members of the UNL community understand and work toward fulfilling the university's three-part mission of teaching and learning, research and creative activity, and outreach and engagement.

The university, O'Hanlon said, has a strong relationship with the state, which expects the university to educate students and provide leadership in economic development and research.

The recently adopted core values (Learning, Excellence, Achievement, Diversity, Engagement, Research and Stewardship) support the university's missions and activities.

The university has made considerable progress in a number of areas since the last review in 1996-97. A factor in this progress has been concerted effort to target and match resources with goals.

CONTACT: James O'Hanlon, Accreditation Team Leader, (402) 472-5310