Title: Preparing for the New Standards: A SACS PreAudit for Compliance Ronald Head Lisa Kleiman Tidewater C
1Preparing for the New StandardsA SACS Pre-Audit
for ComplianceRonald HeadLisa
KleimanTidewater Community CollegeNorfolk,
Virginia
2PURPOSE To prepare for its compliance
certification in 2007 by the Commission on
Colleges (COC) of the Southern Association for
Colleges and Schools (SACS), Tidewater Community
College (TCC) decided to conduct a pre-audit in
2003-04
3- KEY PLAYERS
- Lisa Kleiman, Director of Institutional
Effectiveness, was charged with administrative
responsibility for the pre-audit. - Ronald Head, former SACCR president, was
contracted in November 2003 to conduct the
pre-audit and to serve as the colleges
Accreditation Project Officer.
4BACKGROUND
5The new Principles of Accreditation, which went
into effect in early 2003, replaces the Criteria
for Accreditation. Instead of roughly 450 must
statements, there are now 15 Core Requirements
53 Comprehensive Standards 8 Federal
Requirements Instead of a Self-Study there is
now a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
6Core Requirements are basic qualifications that
an institution must meet to be accredited with
the Commission on Colleges (Principles, p. 13).
The Comprehensive Standards represent good
practices in higher education and establish a
level of accomplishment expected of all member
institutions (Principles, p. 8). Title IV of
the 1998 Higher Education Amendments contains
criteria that SACS is mandated to consider when
it reviews an institution for accreditation.
These Federal Requirements are part of the
compliance certification.
7The Core Requirements, Comprehensive Standards,
and Federal Requirements constitute an
institutions Compliance Certification. The
Compliance Certification is a document completed
by the institution that demonstrates its judgment
of the extent of its compliance with each of the
Core Requirements and Comprehensive Standards
(Principles, p. 9).
8The Compliance Certification is submitted 15
months in advance of an institutions scheduled
reaffirmation. Scheduled reaffirmation June
2008 Off-Site Review by SACS May
2007 Compliance Certification due March 2007
9SACS has developed a Compliance Certification
form to be used to show compliance with all
requirements and standards.
Commission on Colleges
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATION Name of Institution
Date of Submission In order to be
accredited by the Commission on Colleges, an
institution is required to conduct a compliance
audit prior to the filing of the Compliance
Certification. The Compliance Certification,
signed by the institution?s chief executive
officer and accreditation liaison, attests to
compliance with the accreditation requirements of
the Commission on Colleges (Core Requirements and
Comprehensive Standards). Signatures
Attesting to Compliance By signing below, we
attest to the honest assessment of compliance and
the complete and accurate disclosure of
information regarding the compliance of (name
of institution) with the Core Requirements and
Comprehensive Standards of the Commission on
Colleges.
10Unlike the Self-Study, which involved a large
number of people from all constituencies of an
institution, the Compliance Certification is
conducted by a small Leadership Team. The
Leadership Team typically consists of the
President, the SACS liaison, the academic Vice
President, one faculty member, and others as
designated by the President. Many institutions
find it helpful to add a technical advisor or web
master to the Leadership Team.
11In addition to the Compliance Certification, an
institution must also submit to the Commission on
Colleges a Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP as it
is more commonly known. The QEP describes a
carefully designed and focused course of action
that addresses a well-defined issue or issues
directly related to improving student learning
(Principles, p. 9). The development of the QEP
involves significant participation by the
institutions academic community (Principles,
pp. 9-10).
12The QEP is submitted six weeks in advance of the
on-site review by the commission. Scheduled
reaffirmation June 2008 On-Site Review by
SACS September-October 2007 QEP
due July-September 2007
13TCC Pre-Audit
14- A compliance certification instrument was
prepared in November-December 2003. - The instrument combined the new core
requirements and comprehensive standards with the
old compliance criteria. - The instrument was designed to determine
compliance or non-compliance for each
requirement, standard, and criterion. - The table of contents is shown on the next slide.
15(No Transcript)
16- For each core requirement or comprehensive
standard - A determination of compliance, partial
compliance, or non-compliance is made. - Support documentation is listed (to include live
links to the actual documents). - All applicable criteria are listed and
determination of compliance is made for each.
17Calendar
18Compliance Definitions Compliance The
institution meets the requirement and provides a
convincing argument in support of its
determination, and a list of documents (or
electronic access to the documents) demonstrating
compliance. Partial Compliance The institution
meets some, but not all, aspects of the
requirement. For those aspects meeting the
requirement, the institution provides a
convincing argument in support of its
determination, and a list of documents (or
electronic access to the documents) demonstrating
compliance. For those aspects not meeting the
requirement, the institution provides the reason
for checking partial compliance, a description of
plans to comply, and a list of documents that
will be used to demonstrate future
compliance. Non-Compliance The institution
does not meet the requirement and provides the
reason for checking non-compliance, a description
of plans to comply, and a list of documents that
will be used to demonstrate future compliance.
19Pre-Audit Sample Form
20Pre-Audit Actual Form
21Sample Core Requirement 1. The institution has
degree-granting authority from the appropriate
government agency or agencies. ? Compliance
? Partial Compliance ? Non-Compliance
22Sample Core Requirement (contd.) Narrative/Justi
fication for Judgment of Compliance
As authorized by Virginia statute, the State
Board of Community Colleges (SBCC), the governing
board of the Virginia Community College System
(VCCS), has granted formal authority to award
degrees, certificates, and diplomas to all 23
community colleges, including Tidewater Community
College (TCC).
23Sample Core Requirement (contd.)
24Sample Core Requirement (contd.)
25Faculty Credentials
26- Faculty Credentials
- A major area of concern for TCC was faculty
credentials. The college needed to determine how
many faculty met the guidelines of both the old
criteria and the new standards. With this in
mind, the project consultant manually reviewed
the personnel files of all full- and part-time
faculty who taught classes during Fall Semester
2003. - Between February and June 2004, nearly 1,400
faculty files were reviewed.
27- Faculty Credentials (contd)
- A Microsoft Access database was developed to
audit faculty files. - A number of forms and reports were developed to
collect and report data. - Full-time faculty credentials were completed in
early March and a report issued. - Part-time faculty credentials were completed in
late May and a report issued in early June.
28Faculty Credentials (contd.)
29- Faculty Credentials Findings
- A large number of facultyespecially
adjunctsdid not have documentation of relevant
work experience. - In a number of cases, official transcripts were
missing (in many instances, unofficial
transcripts were on file). - In only a few cases were faculty demonstrably
unqualified to teach a class. In the majority of
cases, documentation was the issue. - Problem areas included Speech and
interdisciplinary Humanities classes. - Because faculty may teach different courses in
2005-06 than they did in Fall 2003, their
credentials for any new courses must be checked.
30- Faculty Credentials Findings(Contd.)
- Because the old criteria are stricter than
Comprehensive Standard 3.7.1, some faculty who
did not meet the criteria in the pre-audit do
meet the new standard and are qualified to teach. - Many problems can be addressed by memos from
Provosts or other appropriate administrators
listing and justifying a faculty members
qualifications to teach in a specific discipline
or disciplines.
31- Faculty Credentials - Actions
- In April, 2004, the Vice-President for
Instruction and Student Services developed an
Action Plan to address faculty credential
issues relating to full-time faculty - Issues were divided into eight categories
- For each category, a plan was implemented and
responsibility assigned to the appropriate
administrator(s) - A timetable to complete corrective actions was
established. A deadline of June 15th was
established for all full-time faculty to be in
compliance - Essentially the same Action Plan was developed
for part-time faculty with a completion date of
early fall 2004
32- Faculty Credentials - Actions(Contd.)
- Because many faculty still did not meet
qualifications in Fall 2004, renewed emphasis was
placed on ensuring that all faculty meet the
requirements of Comprehensive Standard 3.7.1. - Some faculty members are not being allowed to
teach certain courses. - Any faculty member who does not have sufficient
documentation in his/her personnel file will not
be allowed to teach in Fall 2005 or Spring 2006. - Because the new standard provides some
flexibility, TCC is justifying the
qualifications of certain faculty members who do
not technically meet the guidelines listed under
Comprehensive Standard 3.7.1. - Documentation to justify faculty members will
be provided electronically with the official
faculty roster provided to the off-site SACS team.
33Institutional Effectiveness
34- Institutional Effectiveness
- Tidewater Community College has an outstanding
institutional effectiveness program, and in the
last SACS accreditation in 1997 no
recommendations or suggestions were offered. - Nevertheless, the pre-audit revealed that while
the college had a strong, central IE program,
certain areas of the college lacked effective
planning documentation. - To remedy this, the college has developed and is
implementing an IE template that covers every
academic program and every administrative and
support service area.
35Sample IE Template
36Other Areas
37- Findings in Other Areas
- Partial or non-compliance were reported in other
areas besides faculty credentials and
institutional effectiveness. - In all cases, specific recommendations and
suggestions were made by the consultant. - In many instances, issues can easily be
addressed. For example, the mission statement is
published in all major institutional documents
with the exception of the Student Handbook. A
new edition of the Student Handbook, published in
2005, contains the mission statement.
38Pre-Audit Status Today
39- Pre-Audit Status as of July 2005
- Audit findings were completed for all core
requirements and comprehensive standards in late
fall, 2004, a draft report was issued in
December, and a final report was issued in
January. - An action plan to address all issues was
developed by TCC administrators in the spring of
2005. - Additional audits of faculty files continue to
reveal issues with credentials.
40Timeline
41Questions ?????????