2008 Woodie Awards
Sounding Off...From the deans' Office
Cherrice Traver
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: Opinions
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Union College is an "accredited" institution. This may be news to many students, and it means that some organization (in our case the Middle States Commission on Higher Education) checks us out periodically to see if we are meeting their expectations of a high-quality degree-granting college. If we pass, we are accredited. The faculty are aware of this because every 10 years, when Middle States would like to visit us again, the faculty and administration participate in an exercise called a "self study". You can think of this as a giant thesis about the current state of things at Union. The Middle States Commission reads the self-study and then they come to verify what they read.
So what does the Middle States Commission want to know about Union? According to their web site: http://www.msche.org/, they want Union to meet these criteria:
*that it has a mission appropriate to higher education;
*that it is guided by well-defined and appropriate goals, including goals for student learning;
*that it has established conditions and procedures under which its mission and goals can be realized;
*that it assesses both institutional effectiveness and student learning outcomes, and uses the results for improvement;
*that it is accomplishing its mission and goals substantially;
*that it is so organized, staffed, and supported so that it can be expected to continue to accomplish its mission and goals; and
*that it meets the eligibility requirements and the standards for accreditation of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
In addition to institutional accreditation, some specific programs at Union are accredited. The Chemistry department offers a degree that is accredited by the American Chemical Society, and all of Union's engineering degrees are accredited by ABET Inc. (formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). So yes, periodically faculty in these departments must write a giant thesis about their programs as well.
So what does the Middle States Commission want to know about Union? According to their web site: http://www.msche.org/, they want Union to meet these criteria:
*that it has a mission appropriate to higher education;
*that it is guided by well-defined and appropriate goals, including goals for student learning;
*that it has established conditions and procedures under which its mission and goals can be realized;
*that it assesses both institutional effectiveness and student learning outcomes, and uses the results for improvement;
*that it is accomplishing its mission and goals substantially;
*that it is so organized, staffed, and supported so that it can be expected to continue to accomplish its mission and goals; and
*that it meets the eligibility requirements and the standards for accreditation of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
In addition to institutional accreditation, some specific programs at Union are accredited. The Chemistry department offers a degree that is accredited by the American Chemical Society, and all of Union's engineering degrees are accredited by ABET Inc. (formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). So yes, periodically faculty in these departments must write a giant thesis about their programs as well.
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