Overview
In the spring of 2005, recognizing that the University was scheduled for a comprehensive reaffirmation of accreditation evaluation during the 2007-08 academic year, MSSU’s President began preparations for an institutional self-study by appointing Co-Chairs for the project and by sending the Co-Chairs, along with a group of administrators and faculty, to the HLC Annual meeting in Chicago. Also in the spring of 2005 and in order to advance an institutional commitment to emphasize student success, MSSU submitted an application to the Policy Center on the First Year of College for participation in the Foundations of Excellence Inaugural National Select Cohort during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years. The Policy Center provided MSSU with access to consultants, data-collection instruments, and procedures for conducting an institutional self-study to evaluate and develop action plans for improving the freshman year. A team of MSSU administrators and faculty attended the Foundations of Excellence Institute in Asheville, NC on August 3-4, 2005. After consultations with the Higher Learning Commission and the Policy Center, MSSU decided to seek approval to integrate the two self-studies into a single special-emphasis process. In August 2005, with recommendations from the Co-Chairs, the President appointed a Steering Committee for the project. In the spring of 2006, MSSU applied for participation in the inaugural cohort of the Higher Learning Commission’s Academy for Assessment of Student Learning. The Academy offers HLC member institutions a four-year sequence of events and interactions that are focused on student learning and are targeted at accelerating and advancing efforts to assess and improve student learning. When planned comprehensively and carefully by the institution, participation in the Academy can produce evidence for upcoming evaluations and can serve in place of mandated progress reports, monitoring reports, and focused visits on assessment of student learning. The most recent comprehensive evaluation visit occurred March 31 – April 2, 2008. Although the consultant-evaluator team recommended that the institution be granted a 10-year continued-accreditation status, it also required that a focused visit be conducted in spring 2011 to review the status of institution-wide strategic planning and the university’s system of shared governance. During the summer of 2008, a Coordinating Committee developed a model and an organizational structure for initiating and carrying out a systematic, broad-based, and highly-participatory strategic planning project that included a review of shared governance policies and procedures. The document also defined how to embed the strategic planning project into a larger process that would prepare the institution for the spring 2011 HLC focused visit. |
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Missouri Southern State University has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA) since 1949. The Higher Learning Commission accredits institutions, not individual programs.