Accreditation success

February 14, 2012

I am extremely pleased to report that UAF received notification of reaffirmation from the commissioners of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities on the basis of the Fall 2011 Comprehensive Evaluation.

The commission made three recommendations based on their evaluation:

The evaluation committee recommends that UAF coordinate its planning and evaluation processes of core themes in a systematic manner to help ensure that the institution’s programs and services align with the accomplishment of the core theme’s objectives.

The committee recommends that UAF evaluate its resource allocation processes and institutional capacity relative to its core themes’ objectives to help ensure adequate effectiveness and sustainability of its programs and services.

The committee recommends that UAF systematically implement and execute its educational assessment plan to consistently achieve identified program and degree learning outcomes and that assessment results be used to guide program improvement.

It’s important to note that we’re already making some progress. We’ve recently reorganized some areas in administrative services and created the Office of Management and Budget, which will assist in our efforts to align the budgeting process with our core themes and mission. This will help us to continually evaluate program effectiveness and sustainability.

UAF is working on the Year One report for the next seven-year cycle, which has reports due every other fall. As a result of the President’s Direction Strategic Listening sessions, we’ll be giving a status update to the commission with the idea that we’ll need to incorporate the themes into our planning process as well.

UAF has now been continuously accredited since 1934. Each accreditation cycle is a team effort that requires countless hours from many faculty and staff. I’d like to thank all of those involved with this latest cycle, in particular, the work of Accreditation and Assessment Assistant LaNora Tolman and Vice Provost and Accreditation Liaison Officer Dana Thomas.

I thank each of you for your efforts that resulted in this positive news.