Accreditation is a process of peer review that the educational community has adopted for its self-regulation since early in the 20th century. It is a voluntary process intended to strengthen and sustain the quality and integrity of higher education, making it worthy of public confidence. Institutions choose to apply for accredited status, and once accredited, they agree to abide by the standards of their accrediting organization and to regulate themselves by taking responsibility for their own improvement.
SUNY Fredonia has been a member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education since 1952. Since that time, every ten years, the University participates in a comprehensive institutional review with representatives of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). Fredonia will host the MSCHE visiting team from Sunday, March 21, 2010 through Wednesday, March 24, 2010. The visiting team is comprised of administrators and faculty from other similar-sized institutions.
A key component to this process is the production of a comprehensive self study document that will form the basis for this review. Fredonia’s self-study is co-chaired by Dr. Roger Byrne, Director of Campus Assessment and Professor of Biology and Ms. Kerrie Wilkes, Associate Librarian, in collaboration with a steering committee and 9 subcommittees, composed of faculty, staff, administrators and students from all divisions on campus. All have toiled diligently to describe, analyze and reflect on all of the functions of the University.
As you are aware, the 14 standards of excellence delineated in the MSCHE’s Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education provided the framework for the self-study. As described in the MSCHE publication Self-Study: Creating a Useful Process and Report, “A comprehensive self-study enables an institution to appraise every aspect of its programs and services, governing and supporting structures, resources, and educational outcomes in relation the institution’s missions and goals.”