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news
Accreditation
for CSULB on schedule
By Sarah Langford
On-line Forty-Niner
Representatives
from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges visited
Cal State Long Beach during a pre-accreditation orientation
of campus Monday.
Judie Wexler, associate executive director of WASC, and David
Porter, provost of Berea College in Kentucky and chair of
the team that will visit CSULB in February, toured the campus
and met with administrators with whom they will be working
during the actual accreditation process next semester.
"The pre-visit by representatives from the accreditation
team is a fairly common practice," said David Hood, CSULB's
liaison to WASC and coordinator of Monday's event. "It
is a good opportunity for them to get oriented with the campus,
as well as arrange their schedule for the accreditation week
coming up."
The official accreditation process will begin Feb. 5 when
a team of eight representatives from WASC visits CSULB for
four days. During their visit they will be interviewing and
evaluating the many agencies on campus to see if the university
is accomplishing its goals and meeting WASC's criteria for
accreditation.
"The accreditation team will be reviewing the university
in basically three areas," Hood said. "First, they
will review the institutional proposal, which states the goals
and purposes of CSULB. Next, they will look at the institutional
capacity, which refers to the number of students studying
here as well as the infrastructure on campus.
"Finally, they will assess the educational effectiveness,
and will determine whether the students are learning what
they need to be learning," Hood said.
Further, Hood explained, accreditation does not happen in
one shot. As of Jan. 1 of this year WASC revised its handbook.
It will become a "rolling" process. Under the new
regulations, the institutional proposal will be reviewed the
first year, institutional capacity two years later and educational
effectiveness three years after the start of the accreditation.
"February's visit will be a transitional one," said
Hood. "Everything will be reviewed at once this year
but we are moving toward the newer model of accreditation."
The accreditation of the university as a whole is not to be
confused with the accreditation of individual departments
on campus, Hood noted. WASC looks only at the university as
an entire body and how it functions as a whole.
The accreditation of different departments on campus by outside
organizations has little to do with the accreditation of the
school as a whole.
This is the first time in 10 years that CSULB will undergo
an evaluation this comprehensive. Since its beginning, the
university has remained accredited, passing each evaluation
since 1949.
Karl Anatol, provost of CSULB, anticipates another successful
accreditation visit in February.
"We're looking forward to the opportunity to have outside
visitors validate that our services to students here are remarkable,"
Anatol said. "We always appreciate any advice or suggestions
they have for us, because they only make our university stronger."
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