I was recently having a conversation with an institution President and a member of that institution’s Board and the President indicated that a reaffirmation “brings an institution to its knees.” I have thought about that statement quite a bit since then and, though I did not voice it then, I stick with my first thought of “If it does, it is your own fault.” By “you”, I don’t necessarily mean you, I mean the institution as a whole.
Early on during the administrative period of my career, it took me some time to understand that people can’t automatically be trusted to do their job. Well, their whole job. The faculty job includes many things. One of them is to track student attainment of learning outcomes in an authentic, organized, and verifiable way. Jobs in Student Services/Support include many things, one of them being to identify outcomes and measure attainment in an authentic, organized, and verifiable way. Mid-level jobs (think Department Chairs and Deans) have many responsibilities. One of them is to build budgets and identify priorities that are data-informed. But if the faculty and the student services folks are not providing data, well, you get the idea. Executive jobs (VPs and Presidents) have many responsibilities. Among those, is to ensure the mission and the strategic plan are executed in an authentic, organized, and verifiable way and that the budgeting process is data-informed. This is a struggle if the information they need in the form of assessment data is not provided in an authentic, organized, and verifiable way.
I worked at three different institutions and have worked for almost 20 as a consultant, and in most of these institutions there is an undercurrent of the different levels not being sure that the others fully understand what is going on. My answer is usually, “Of course they don’t, you are not telling them in an authentic, organized, and verifiable way.”
In the absence of institutional processes that are faithfully executed, processes like those that support compelling narratives for all of the current SACSCOC section 7 and section 8 narratives come apart. They don’t get done. They are done poorly. Faculty and staff are frustrated that they have to do this busy work of assessment. If it is busy work, you are doing it wrong. When these processes fall apart so does communication. Then is comes time for a reaffirmation and the institution is brought to its knees as faculty and staff are forced to scramble around to assemble something that is usually minimally acceptable, all the while grumbling about accreditation and busy work when it would have been easier and more meaningful to have been doing this correctly the whole time.
It will be interesting to work with institutions switching accreditors thinking that the grass is greener. Assessment does not go away. Meaningful planning and budget construction does not go away. Don’t get me wrong, SACSCOC has its issues, but these practices that are meant to inform on and improve the education and services provided to students will not go away.
Institutions commonly have problems keeping track of their ongoing processes, and it is these processes that cause the most problems in an accreditation report. Southeastern Accreditation Consultants is always interested in supporting institutions in their accreditation journey. We bring best practices, proven strategies, experienced process review, and a new online assessment management platform to the table. We offer individualized services to best meet your needs during the adventure to come. Contact us to get started.