Forums this week with reaccreditation review team

by Dave Jones
April 08, 2014

Three campus forums — one each for faculty, staff and students — are scheduled this week in conjunction with a site visit by a review team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges,or WASC, which is wrapping up UC Davis’ 10-year reaccreditation cycle.

The six-member team will be here from Wednesday through Friday (April 9-11) to meet with campus leadership and others, and to follow up on issues of interest or concern arising from the university’s self-prepared Institutional Reaccreditation Report.

In a Feb. 4 message to the campus community, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi relayed word from the review team on four key lines of inquiry that will be the site visit’s focus:

What it means to be a land-grant institution in 2014 and for the future.
How our campus is preparing for planned growth under the 2020 Initiative.
Our ongoing efforts to assess the effectiveness of our academic and co-curricular programs.
The development of the new budget model for campus, and how UC Davis plans to maintain its excellence in teaching and research under difficult financial conditions.

“I am confident that UC Davis is in a strong position in relation to the review team’s priorities,” Katehi said. “The team’s evaluation will also provide us with valuable opportunities to understand where we might do better on behalf of the entire UC Davis community.”

Accreditation means the campus has met rigorous standards for quality, capacity and effectiveness, and brings a variety of benefits, especially access to federal financial aid resources. UC Davis has been fully accredited since 1954 by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

As part of the site visit for reaccreditation, the review team is interested in hearing from as many members of the UC Davis community as possible, and has requested open forum conversations. These are among the “most important elements” of the site visit, an academic administrator and a faculty leader said in a March 13 email to the campus.

“Each forum has been planned in coordination with the respective representative bodies (Academic Senate, Staff Assembly and ASUCD),” wrote Carolyn de la Peña, interim vice provost of Undergraduate Education, who serves as the accreditation liaison officer between UC Davis and the WASC Senior College and University Commission; and Bruno Nachtergaele, chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate.

“The forums are intended to provide the accreditation review team the opportunity to hear directly from you about your experiences at UC Davis.”

Here is the schedule:

Faculty — 2:45-3:30 p.m. Wednesday (April 9), Ballrooms A and B, Conference Center
Staff — 9:45-10:30 a.m. Thursday (April 10), Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
Students — 2:45-3:30 p.m. Thursday (April 10), Meeting Room D, Student Community Center

Online registration. This is only for the purposes of managing capacity; there will be no list of attendees provided to the review team and no record of attendance kept.

Comments can also be delivered to a confidential email account. A WASC staff member set up this account, and only authorized WASC staff and team members have access to it. The emails are not viewed by any representatives of UC Davis.

The email account is created for this visit only and will be closed once the WASC team leaves the campus. Only comments made before or during the visit will be considered as part of the review process.

Please note that team members will not respond individually to comments provided through the confidential email account. However, the input will be considered as the team undertakes its work and develops recommendations to the institution.

The team is not able to meet individually with members of the campus community, so please do not use the email account to request private appointments.

Questions? Send an email to Jessica Loudermilk, director of academic programs in Undergraduate Education.