MWU and Accreditation

Over the past year, MWU has been undergoing a comprehensive review of its academic program in preparation for our reaccreditation site visit with The Higher Learning Commission in January 2008. I have spent the better part of this week reviewing the third draft of our self-study report. Needless to say, accreditation is taken very seriously at MWU and is something we do very well.

Since last summer, more than 100 MWU faculty and staff members and students at each campus have been part of "criterion committees," which have analyzed the University in five distinct areas: 1) mission and integrity; 2) preparing for the future; 3) student learning and effective teaching; 4) acquisition, discovery, and application of knowledge; and 5) engagement and service. Through these committees, our community has looked at our University's current practices and policies and has compared them against the requirements set forth by the accrediting agency. In the course of the self-study, we have critically evaluated what we do well and where we can do better. We have carefully studied our mission statement to make sure it reflects and succinctly states our overriding mission as a University. In addition to documenting our successes, outcomes, and results, the self-study also makes recommendations for improvements.

It has been my honor to serve as the Vice Chair of the Steering Committee overseeing the accreditation self-study process. Our President deliberately selected two co-chairs for each criterion committee--one from each campus. The membership of each committee also had equal representation from each campus. In the course of writing our report, members of both campuses were able to learn about and learn from their colleagues at their sister campus. This is one of the many ways that MWU is "one university with six colleges at two campuses." Our values and policies pervade each separate campus community. We hope our students and alumni see the benefit of being part of a larger university, while also appreciating our smaller campus environments.

Accreditation provides a "stamp of approval" for the public and our students about the quality of our educational offerings and our administrative systems. We have worked to establish a strong partnership with our regional accrediting agency, to make sure they are apprised of the growth and development of our campuses so that they can make informed decisions about our ability to provide our degree programs. We have taken our current self-study process very seriously and have grown closer as academic colleagues as a result.