I have been in the accreditation arena for a long time, starting with my first SACSCOC annual meeting in 2003 or 2004 and my first On-Site Committee in 2006 or so. In total I have worked at three institutions, visited a dozen or so, and over the past four years consulted with 15 institutions and I have seen the very good and the very bad. Complicated? Yes, that too.
I think it has to do with familiarity with SACSCOC and the standards themselves. Qualitatively, it seems that lower levels of experience and exposure lead to overcomplicated designs. Designs for what? Well, service review (7.3 and 8.2.c) and student learning outcomes (8.2.a, 8.2.b) and strategic planning (7.1) for a few examples. No, I did not forget the QEP, I’ll talk about that in a bit. There is definitely a certain gravitas to accreditation and I have observed that translated into the idea that, “if it is this important, it must need to be complicated.” It does not. As a reviewer, the simple and elegant solutions that were well-executed were received with equal appreciation as the complicated solutions that were well-executed. The key is execution. The more complicated it is, the more fraught with potential for disaster it is.
The QEP is another example of a place where the temptation to overcomplicate is very difficult to resist. After all, this is a MAJOR piece of the reaffirmation journey. Don’t get me wrong, it is a big project, but being big does not mean that it must be big AND complicated. For the most part, institutions are not planning to publish the results of this work in a peer-reviewed journal, they just want to get through the review by their peers on the SACSCOC committee. Only once in all this time involved with accreditation did I think that the institution needed to add complexity to the QEP. Almost every other time? Yep, they should have gone simpler. The more complicated it is, the more likely it is that something (maybe many things) will be overlooked, and the more difficult it will be to write the impact report.
I have had the privilege of working with many institutions to simplify and streamline their processes and ideas to create meaningful projects that are, well, not easy, but easier to execute. If you are interested to know more, I can put you in touch with them and then we can talk about what we can build together.
At Southeastern Accreditation Consultants, we’re ready to collaborate and support your accreditation journey. We bring best practices, proven strategies, and experienced process review to the table. We offer individualized services to best meet your needs during the adventure to come. Contact us to get started.