WU ‘appers to meet’ all 14 standards
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an accrediting body that, according to Dr. Jamie Jacobs, dean of institutional effectiveness and planning, gives the education of a university value.
“The importance of accreditation means the knowledge that you get and the classes that you get have been certified by this independent body,” Jacobs said. “If your courses and your degree and your institution are accredited that means that, externally, everyone recognizes their validity.”
After the Middle States visitation team made its site visit Nov. 2-5, they gave an informal presentation to the university and, according to University President Douglas G. Lee, said Waynesburg “appears to meet” all 14 standards of accreditation.
“I was very proud of the way the faculty, staff and students represented the university when the visiting team was here, and I was also very appreciative of the hard work from all of the committees,” Lee said. “The amount of time, energy and effort they put into this was monumental, and I’m so thankful we have a great group of people here.”
Middle States’ 14 standards of accreditation are broken up into two categories. The first category, Institutional Context, includes mission and goals, planning, resource allocation and institutional renewal, institutional resources, leadership and governance, administration, integrity and institutional assessment.
The second category, Educational Effectiveness, includes student admissions and retention, student support services, faculty, educational offerings, general education, related educational activities and assessment of student learning.
The university set up approximately 60 meetings for the visitation team that covered all 14 of the accreditation standards.
“I am very pleased with the outcome of the Middle States visit,” Jacobs said. “We got very good feedback from them that they really enjoyed themselves. They could see the positive results of the good work that we’ve been doing here.”
Jacobs said the success of the site-visit is especially significant because Middle States has increased the rigor with which it assesses the institutions.
“They’ve really gone more towards focusing on assessment as the years have passed,” Jacobs said. “They’re looking for, not only a statement of what we do, but being able to show how we do it and how we regularly assess what we’re doing.”
The visitation team will take the information compiled during its site visit and compare it to the information provided by Waynesburg in its self-study, which was submitted over the summer.
The self-study, which is an assessment by the university on how the institution is performing compared to its expectations, was submitted in May.
Jacobs said the chair of the self-study committee then came to visit Waynesburg for a day in June and met with professors, the president, the provost, a group of students and members of the Board of Trustees among others to get a sense of how the institution works.
He then gave the university some suggestions on how to revise the document, which the university revised and officially turned in in September.
The visitation team is comprised of members in similar roles, such as deans, provosts and faculty members, at other Middle States universities. Jacobs said Middle States selects its members for the site visit in this manner because the people in leadership positions at other Middle States institutions know what the standards are and are experienced at working at a university like the ones they are asked to assess in the site-visit.
Jacobs said the next step in the accreditation process is the site-visit team has until this Saturday to send its report to Waynesburg.
Then the university has ten days to make its comments and send it back to the visitation team.
In the spring, the head of the visiting team will make a presentation to Middle States about the visitation team’s opinion on its site visit report compared to the self-study submitted by Waynesburg and the 14 standards of accreditation. The commission will then vote on whether or not Waynesburg will continue to be accredited by Middle States.
While the accreditation process is a stressful and nerve-racking one, Jacobs said she was not surprised by anything the visitation team conducted or said, and she is confident Waynesburg will renew its accreditation.