Rutgers University is taking the opportunity offered by the decennial accreditation process of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools to review its roadmap for excellence in greater education.
The reaccreditation process also allows Rutgers administrators and faculty to join a national discussion regarding assessment and accountability for institutions of higher education, a dialogue spurred by the 2006 report of the commission appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. The report called for greater transparency about cost, price, and student learning outcomes at colleges and universities.
The steering committee of the Middle States reaccreditation invites members of the Rutgers commuinity to attend forums in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick. Comments and questions about the self-study report may be emailed to the Steering Committee.
Camden
Friday, November 2, 2007
10 a.m. to noon
Fine Arts Building, Room 110Newark
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Bove Auditorium, Englehart HallNew Brunswick
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Scholarly Communication Center, 4th Floor
Alexander Library, College Avenue Campus
“This is coming at a time when there is an enormous amount of substantive but also political discussion nationwide about higher education and in particular, setting learning goals,” said Bob Goodman, executive dean of the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Goodman is chair of the steering and executive committees overseeing the Middle States reaccreditation process.
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education reviews college and universities in accordance with 14 standards examining institutional characteristics – such as resources, planning, governance, and integrity – as well as the educational effectiveness of the institution, using categories like admission, retention, faculty, and learning assessments to gauge success.
The Middle States reaccreditation process is voluntary, but institutions without accreditation are not eligible for federal funding, including grants and student financial aid. At a major public research university such as Rutgers, a successful accreditation process is imperative.
Following an October 29 visit by a group from the Middle States Association, three forums will take place on each Rutgers campus – November 2 in Camden, November 6 in Newark, and November 7 in New Brunswick. All members of the university community are invited to participate.
Before attending the forums, members of the community should look at the variety of documents posted on the Middle States Reaccreditation website – the most recent documents are the draft self-study report [PDF] and the preliminary self-study executive summary [PDF].
“The purpose will be to gather comments and reactions and responses and information that will help us revise the self-study,” Goodman said. “What I am saying to people is if what you do at Rutgers or if what you know about Rutgers has something to do with the topics in the self-study, read it for credibility, veracity, and accuracy, and help us improve it.”
“The reaccreditation process is a means for Rutgers to display accountability to members of the university community as well as the higher education community at large,” said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. “The stamp of approval indicates that Rutgers is providing a quality education to the tens of thousands of students we serve each year, and ensures that we maintain a level of excellence in the areas of teaching, research, and service.”
The self-study report is largely focused on undergraduate education, a central topic at Rutgers since 2004, when President Richard L. McCormick convened a task force on undergraduate education. One year later, the Board of Governors approved sweeping changes, which are being implemented right now.
“The whole process of transforming undergraduate education was in fact the mother of assessment. Rutgers looked at itself and went through a long, elaborative process,” Goodman said. “We are, in a sense, an institution that is engaged in a large-scale assessment in the fullest sense of the term.”
The committee has working groups committed to studying how Rutgers–Camden works to serve the surrounding community, and how education and academic research at Rutgers–Newark plays a distinctive role in an urban context. On those campuses, the commitment to undergraduate education is being realized in dramatic expansions in student services and housing to serve a growing student body, and new academic programming, such as Honors College and freshman writing seminars, specifically geared toward undergraduate engagement.
Communication Professor Brent D. Ruben, who is also executive director of the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, said the goals of the reaccreditation process and innovations at Rutgers complement each other.
“The [Middle States reaccreditation] process allows us to think creatively about how best to integrate the concepts of educational goal setting and assessment at all levels,” Ruben said.
The chair of the site visit team from the Middle States Association will be among those visiting Rutgers on October 29. He will meet with President McCormick, members of the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees, a panel of representatives from the working groups at Rutgers focused on the accreditation process, as well as a group of student leaders and the members of the steering committee.
Two “document generalists” will accompany the site visit chair, and review Rutgers’ output to ensure that the university has documented how it meets the 14 standards set by the Middle States Association.
“The primary question for Middle States is: Is Rutgers doing what it says it is doing? The document generalists will be looking at things such as leadership, governance, financial matters, and many other areas,” said Barbara Bender, associate dean for academic support and graduate student services at the Graduate School–New Brunswick.
“The document generalists will spend October 29 literally in one room. They will be reading our materials and studying various links that have been provided. They will also have hundreds of hard copy documents available for review,” Bender said.
Bender has been involved in this process for some time. She helped put the report together during the previous accreditation process at Rutgers 10 years ago, and has also been involved with the Middle States Association, going to other institutions as a member of site visit teams.
“I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years,” Bender said. “I’ve gone to all different types of institutions, private and public. What I get from it is a great deal of insight into how other institutions do what they do.
“Rutgers takes accreditation very seriously and we welcome the opportunity to participate in the process at this very special time in our institutional history,” Bender said. “The self-study process gives us a chance to examine what we’re doing, identify how we can enhance our efforts, and help us plan for the future.”