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SACSCOC Accreditation Team to Visit ASU

March 07, 2013

A team of administrators from other southern universities will visit Angelo State University March 19-21 to reaffirm the university’s accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

Nine SACSCOC visitors will be on campus that week to review ASU’s compliance with various standards, ranging from finances and facilities to academic programs and student life. The review team will also provide perspective on ASU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

The team will be chaired by Dr. Rebecca Porterfield, associate dean, director of international programs and director of assurance of learning for the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Other members of the visiting team are: Dr. Joe Delap, Jacksonville State University; Dr. Carol Burton, Western Carolina University; Dr. Randy Dunn, Murray State University; Dr. John Delaney, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Dr. Ricky Slavings, Radford University; Dr. Susan Stephenson, University of West Florida; Christin Shatzer, Lipscomb University; and Dr. Mark Smith, Commission on Colleges.

The reaffirmation process is conducted once every decade.  Angelo State’s accreditation was last reaffirmed in 2002. Accreditation ensures that universities meet common standards of higher education so course credits can be transferred. Accreditation is required before universities are eligible for federal funding, including student financial aid.

“The Quality Enhancement Plan is the centerpiece of ASU’s reaffirmation of SACSCOC accreditation,” said Dr. Doyle Carter, QEP director. “The QEP must focus on student learning and the learning environment, which, rightly so, are also central to ASU’s mission statement.  But the QEP is much more than an accreditation requirement. The QEP is intended to enhance the quality of the learning at ASU and help our university and the people we serve become an even greater learning community.”

ASU’s QEP is titled “CONNECT! Campus and Community” and seeks to engage students, faculty and staff with the local, regional, national and global communities to enhance student learning and better serve those communities.

In 2010, ASU began researching possible QEP topics. Multiple constituents, including focus groups from the Concho Valley, provided feedback as to what an ASU graduate should know and be able to do.

“Consistently and overwhelmingly,” Carter said, “the groups responded that ASU graduates should enter their careers or further education with knowledge and skills associated with social responsibility.”

By definition, this knowledge includes intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility and the ability to engage effectively in the regional, national and global communities.

More information about SACSCOC can be found at www.sacscoc.org. Information is also available online about ASU’s reaffirmation at www.angelo.edu/institutional_accreditation/, and its QEP – “CONNECT!” – at www.angelo.edu/connect/.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges is the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Texas.

For more information about the SACSCOC accreditation visit and ASU’s QEP, contact Carter in the ASU Center for Community Engagement at 325-942-2708.