NCU Magazine: Making the grade

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Story by Christopher Fletcher

Accreditation is an elusive subject that has recently come to the forefront at North Central and many are wondering what’s so important about it. Here’s a little scenario that might help clarify things a bit.

Imagine you are a new student embarking on your first year of college at North Central. Your textbooks are lined up in your bookcase. You’ve eaten in the cafeteria with all your new friends who are fast becoming long-lost soul mates. You have attended life-changing services in the chapel. Tomorrow is the first day of class.

But then you get an ominous letter in your mailbox. What’s this? No financial aid? You race to the financial aid office and notice that the hallway is choked with dozens of students who are all headed the same direction. You ask a dazed student what has happened and he mumbles something that sounds like “no accreditation.” You ask others what this “accreditation” is—no one has any idea. You may not be starting school after all.

Although what was just related sounds like an especially boring episode of “The Twilight Zone,” something like it could happen were North Central to lose its accreditation. There may have been a time when NCU didn’t need accreditation, but that time is long gone.

Accreditation is more than just a one-time pat on the back from an independent agency; it’s an ongoing process that makes sure that the school receives grants, students receive financial aid, and credits transfer in from other schools. The group charged with keeping an eye on North Central is the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and its representatives will visit the school this November.

The HLC is an independent accrediting corporation recognized by the US Department of Education. Their stated mission is to serve “the common good by assuring and advancing the quality of higher learning.” They do this by sending out teams of reviewers to check up on schools to see if they meet certain criteria.

North Central’s own Dr. Carolyn Tennant is a peer-reviewer for the HLC. “The very first thing they are going to look at is… our mission statement,” says Tennant. “They are going to evaluate us according to [what it says] and they’re going to want us to prove that we did it.” This is why the mission statement was recently changed—to reflect what the school was hoping to accomplish and to present a consistent target to aim for when it comes time for accreditation.

For schools that passed their last accreditation review with flying colors (like North Central did) the HLC gives ten years until the next review. NCU started preparing three years ago for the upcoming review.

This meant gathering together all of the information North Central’s faculty and staff could get their hands on. “We have to turn in all faculty, student, and staff handbooks along with two years of audits, and our institutional snapshot,” said Tennant.

The Steering Committee was formed to coordinate the efforts of five subcommittees each of which had a different area to cover. The areas of self-study covered the flowing key areas: Mission and Integrity; Preparing for the Future; Student Learning and Effective Teaching; Acquisition, Discovery and Application of Knowledge; and Engagement and Service. Each subcommittee prepared a report on their findings which were then sent to the HLC in advance of their visit.

A team of five peer-reviewers will come to the university and meet with students and faculty alike. They’ll be in chapel and attend board meetings, and all the while they will be comparing what they see and hear with what North Central says about itself.

Tennant sees the preparation for the peer-review as a necessary step in the university’s development as an institution. It’s like when a person sees themselves in a mirror for the first time. They suddenly become self-aware and there’s no turning back. “It’s really helped us, because the areas they’ve said we need to work on, we have really worked on,” she says. “It’s really interesting to see where we’ve come [from] in the last ten years.”

I ask what has changed and she chuckles to herself, then smiles at me. She tells me that ten years ago, NCU faculty didn’t have computers in their offices or in classrooms. This floors me. I can remember a time when computers were not ubiquitous, but to do so I have to go back to when I was five. It’s safe to say that this review team will have no issues with a lack of computing power on campus.

In fact, the review team is not likely to find anything amiss. Having spent more than two years in preparation, it’s clear the faculty and staff take to heart the advice that they give over a thousand times a semester: “Plan ahead. You can’t start your project the night before and expect to get an A.”

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