WSU Prepares for Accreditation Review Under New Accreditation Guidelines

ATL Director Kimberly Green is now also serving as Interim Director of Institutional Accreditation.   Since May, she has been working with leadership institution-wide to report in areas of governance, undergraduate and graduate education, online programs, student affairs, business and finance, human resources, libraries and physical and technical infrastructure.   As Washington State University prepares for reaccreditation, new standards require a self-study with progressive reports due every two years – rather than one big report generated every 10 years, as WSU completed in 2009.

“The new accreditation cycle is intended to promote self-reflection and analysis, help the institution fulfill its mission and meet its goals, and support continuous improvement,” said Provost Warwick Bayly. “This represents essential work for all of us, individually and collectively.”

WSU is currently writing its self-study, due by March 1.  In April 2013, a team of six evaluators from peer institutions in the Pacific Northwest will review WSU’s report and visit campus, acting on behalf of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.  Accreditation is a form of peer review, a system of self-regulation to assess universities on their ability to fulfill the mission and goals they’ve identified for themselves.