SACS team impressed by GC&SU

Several weeks ago, a team of representatives from SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, visited Georgia College & State University’s campus.
SACS is the authoritative body that accredits all institutions of higher education in the Southern states.
Every ten years, each institution must go through a review period to assure its continued compliance and thus maintain its accreditation. Without SACS accreditation, institutions cannot get funding or attract students.
GC&SU has been working dedicatedly over the past two years to make certain that it is in compliance with the SACS standards. The hard work has paid off. The visiting team found GC&SU to be in compliance with a total of twelve out of fourteen standards which had previously been identified as areas of concern that needed to be addressed for re-accredidation. Director of SACS Self-Study Dr. Jane Rose expressed her confidence in GC&SU’s ability to meet these standards.
“[GC&SU] has always been accredited by SACS, and I am fully confident that our accreditation will be reaffirmed,” said Rose.
The first standard to be addressed is clarifying our mission statement.
“The reviewers were quite clear that we all understood our liberal arts mission, and that it drives how we do things at GC&SU. But our published mission statement is long and involves statements of our principles and vision, which, while related, are not the same thing,” said Rose. “Let me clarify that this is a language issue; it will not affect our practices at all.”
The second and most significant issue to be addressed is the assessment of whether GC&SU graduates demonstrate competencies in the eleven stated outcomes of the school’s core curriculum. The school has been working over the past two years to develop a reporting system to show curriculum assessment and planning procedures. This work has proven to be successful in that the core curriculum area is the only academic area that needs additional development.
Also, SACS has recently developed a new requirement for re-accredidation, and GC&SU is among the first of the required schools to meet it. SACS now requires that schools develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (the QEP), which addresses the improvement of student learning over the next ten years.
“I think the SACS reviewers were very impressed with the passion and energy of the faculty, staff and administrators at GC&SU,” said Rose, who pointed out that the review team was made up of peers from other institutions involved in SACS. “Especially in regard to discussions about our Quality Enhancement Plan. They commented that while our plan was ambitious, they felt we had what it would take to accomplish it.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 16 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry