News from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation-Spring 2021
Welcome to Accreditation Central!
CHEA is pleased to provide for its members a quarterly newsletter designed to apprise you of CHEA activities, events, meetings and webinars that support institutions and accreditation. Two very special features that will appear in each issue are conversations from one of your collegiate peers and expressions from a regional, national or program accreditor.
Four- and two-year higher education institutions recognize the importance of creating a culture of academic quality assurance through accreditation best practices at both the institutional and program levels. CHEA serves as your resource in helping to achieve and maintain that culture.
In this first issue, CHEA identifies the various departments that support our approximately 1,500 members from all over the country. Click here for a listing of CHEA membership benefits. Future issues will be distributed as a link to facilitate sharing with your campus colleagues. CHEA hopes that you will find this quarterly newsletter helpful and that you will let us know how we can better support your accreditation efforts.
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation is Accreditation Central.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Jackson-Hammond
President
Presidents Should Continue to Lead in Accreditation
Dr. Antoine Garibaldi
President, University of Detroit Mercy
Accreditation is essential to every college and university. But that certification of the institution’s quality cannot be achieved without the leadership of its president or chancellor who, by his/her involvement, conveys a strong message that continuous improvement in every school and college is a fundamental element of the university’s academic integrity and reputation. Because most universities’ chief executive officers have previously held senior academic or administrative leadership roles, they have been involved in and understand the importance of accreditation. However, after they become presidents, there is a tendency to scale back their involvement because of other critical duties and in deference to the Provost and other colleagues in this process. I make the case in the next paragraphs that universities’ chief executives should continue to lead in this area because of their accumulated years of experience with accreditations.
Over my career, I have been a professor and administrator at four private universities of varied types, sizes and Carnegie classifications. Three were Catholic and two were Historically Black universities (HBCU) in four states (Louisiana, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Michigan) and in three accrediting associations (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Middle States Association and Higher Learning Commission). My initial experience with state and national accreditations began at Xavier University of Louisiana as an education department chairperson, Dean of Arts and Sciences and vice president for academic affairs. While leading and coordinating dozens of discipline-specific accreditations at Xavier and my alma mater, Howard University, as its first Provost and Chief Academic Officer, I was also responsible for their decanal accreditation visits. As president of Gannon University and now University of Detroit Mercy, my engagement in accreditations has been active and not intrusive to the diligent work of the committees. And I have chaired the accreditation teams of a public Historically Black university and a major Catholic university, as well as served on visitation teams of different institutions across the country.
Those accumulated accreditation experiences have increased my knowledge of how faculty effectively deliver instruction and advise students, as well as how small and large colleges and universities operate efficiently and manage their financial resources to produce well-rounded graduates who will become exceptional leaders in their professions. Reading institutional and discipline-specific self-study drafts is a way of conveying my support for the careful and meticulous accreditation efforts of dedicated faculty and staff and an occasional opportunity to add to their evidence-based reports and deliberations. Furthermore, a president’s involvement accentuates the importance of the results obtained from curricular and institutional analyses that will influence the decisions of prospective students to enroll at the university and employers to recruit and hire its well-prepared graduates.
Presidents and chancellors must continue to lead in the accreditation process because their opinions in this area are vital to the future of higher education. Moreover, they can send an even more powerful message when they nominate colleagues from academic affairs, finance, enrollment, advancement and other areas to serve as candidates for their respective associations’ accreditation team. Presidents must remain at the forefront of advances in accreditation to assure that all postsecondary institutions and their students continue to benefit from these insightful assessment experiences.
The Higher Learning Commission Focuses New Lens on Differential Accreditation
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the largest historically regional accreditor, is launching a project to pilot differential accreditation by institutional sector.
In developing this project, HLC recognizes the growing interest among some colleges and universities for quality indicators such as accreditation standards to be attentive to the interests, needs, aspirations and constraints of the sector in which an institution operates. The agency will look at performing more accreditation activities through multiple lenses.
According to HLC President Barbara Gellman-Danley, various tenets of both HLC’s last strategic plan, VISTA, and its newest, EVOLVE, make it incumbent upon the agency to engage this topic comprehensively and in partnership with its members.
“At its core, differential accreditation will not simply recognize conceptually the diversity and differences among sectors, it will foreground the interests and needs of the various sectors when applying HLC’s requirements of accreditation,” said Gellman-Danley
HLC’s Eligibility Requirements, Criteria for Accreditation will remain consistent for all member institutions.
“All member institutions will continue to be required to meet the Criteria for Accreditation,” she said. “However, we want to look at each institution from their perspective and core values.”
HLC will leverage advisory groups to advance this project in an effort to engage a breadth of appropriate stakeholders. Initial plans are to gather college and university presidents from a diverse range of settings and institution types. HLC also will conduct listening sessions from institutional members at its April annual conference.
The project will then engage member institutions from different sectors to take part in advisory councils and respond to member surveys. Eventually the pilot will be tested through implementation in fall 2022 at the earliest.
Government Affairs
On Capitol Hill, the membership of the Senate and House education committees has been established. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has been busy with hearings on nominations for various Administration positions that require Senate approval (such as Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who was approved by the full Senate on March 1). Both the Senate and House were actively involved in review and approval of the Administration’s COVID-19 Relief Package, which included $40 billion in additional funds for higher education institutions (a total of $76.3 billion among the separate relief packages passed since 2020).
At the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), the Administration has nominated individuals to fill several positions related to higher education, including Under Secretary James Kvaal and Deputy Secretary Cynthia Marten. Both have been approved by the HELP Committee and are awaiting confirmation by the full Senate. An Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education – who will oversee USDE’s activities related to accreditation – has not yet been nominated. Others not requiring Senate confirmation, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Michelle Asha Cooper, are already at work.
USDE has 16 presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed positions. President Biden has had one USDE nominee confirmed by the Senate, with four pending Senate hearings or confirmation and 11 individuals to be nominated. Not having these people in place slows the policy work of USDE.
CHEA will follow the work of Congress and the Administration and will keep members informed, through the Federal Update, on any developments or activities affecting higher education and accreditation.
Recognition
CHEA’s Committee on Recognition (the committee that reviews accrediting organizations and advises the CHEA Board of Directors on recognition decisions) met virtually on March 8-10. The committee reviewed 13 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations seeking either initial recognition or continuation of recognition. The recommendations of the Committee on Recognition were considered at the CHEA Board of Directors meeting on May 3, with the board voting to recognize five accrediting organizations, four of which are new to CHEA recognition.
CHEA (which was established and supported 25 years ago by a referendum of college and university presidents, in part to be the academy’s recognition body) currently recognizes more than 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. CHEA recognition signals that the accrediting organization establishes and upholds rigorous quality standards for the institutions or programs it accredits.
While CHEA and USDE recognition are completely separate, CHEA follows USDE’s recognition activities closely. USDE’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which advises the Secretary of Education on recognition of accrediting organizations, met in early March to consider the continuing recognition of a number of accreditors. NACIQI recommended that most of the accrediting organizations being reviewed be granted continuing accreditation; however, NACIQI recommended that the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools no longer be recognized due to lack of compliance with several USDE recognition standards. While this is not yet a final decision, it is a significant development.
CHEA Almanac
In February 2021, CHEA published the CHEA Almanac of External Quality Review. The fully online, searchable Almanac contains information on accreditation in the United States and profiles all institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations recognized by CHEA, USDE or both.
Look for the information you need on how accreditation operates in the United States or on regional, national career-related, national faith-related or programmatic accrediting organizations, including contact information for each accreditor, all in one place.
CHEA Fellows Program
CHEA launched its Fellows Program in February 2021. The program is available exclusively to current CHEA member institutions. The program offers graduate students an opportunity to learn more about CHEA, its organizational mission, and the recognition process for accrediting organizations. Fellows will spend at least part of their time at CHEA’s headquarters in Washington, DC, working with staff from various departments of the organization. The initial response to the fellowship has been strong, with multiple applications received. For information on the CHEA Fellows program, click here.
CHEA Meetings and Webinars
The 2021 CHEA Summer Roundtable – Strengthening an Institutional Culture of Quality Assurance – will be held virtually June 17, from 10:00 am to 4:15 pm ET. Last year’s virtual Summer Roundtable provided participants with the opportunity to hear from key Administration and Congressional staff addressing accreditation-related issues. This year’s Summer Roundtable will feature a broader range of topics appealing to presidents and chancellors, board members, accreditation liaison officers and others involved in institutional and programmatic accreditation, as well as government affairs-related issues.
Participation in the Summer Roundtable is only available to current CHEA members, the CHEA International Quality Group and CHEA-recognized accrediting organizations. Click here for program and registration information!
The National Voice of Accreditation