The Syracuse University Steering Committee held two information sessions on Friday for interested students, faculty and staff on the reaccreditation process SU goes through every 10 years and is currently undergoing now.

The sessions were led by Rochelle Ford, professor and chair of the public relations department in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and Libby Barlow, assistant vice president in the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Ford and Barlow are co-chairs of the Steering Committee. One session was held between 11 a.m. and noon, the other was from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. — both in Newhouse.

Attendees were given an overview of the accreditation process and how SU will be approaching it. The university goes through the full reaccreditation process every 10 years and a periodic review every five years to retain its Middle States accreditation, according to its website.

The Middle States accreditation is a public indicator of education quality and for institutional accountability, according to an SU News release. It signals to peer institutions and stakeholders such as the federal government that it is operating in line with its mission, vision and within its best practices.

“Not only do we learn about ourselves through this process, but we also have the opportunity of going to other universities and learning about their processes,” Ford said.

Ford gave an overview of the accreditation process, saying it was an opportunity for SU to participate in a peer review process and internally reflect on what was being done well and what could be improved upon.

After the internal reflection, members of other universities were being invited to campus to continue the “self study of how SU is achieving learning and how the mission is being led,” Ford said.

“We reflect on what we’re doing and find errors which we can improve with this process,” Ford said.

The key elements of the Middle States standards are assessment, substantial measure, mission, improvement and compliance and embedded topics, Ford said.

The committee formed in this process will be broken up into eight different teams that would be writing about one of these standards. Ford said each item will result in 10 pages of narrative.

Student representatives from both the graduate and undergraduate student bodies take place in the process, too, Ford said. Each team will review and reflect on documents, procedures, processes and structures.

“We have to make sure that we have shown how we are making improvements, how we’re in compliance with the standards, how we’re reflecting back to SU and show concrete evidence on how we have achieved our goal in student learning,” Ford said.

Ford added it was important to look at how student experiences out of the classroom, including clubs and studying abroad, helped students learn as a whole.

“We really want (students) to be an advocate in this process,” Ford said.

Published on October 9, 2016 at 9:50 pm

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