Accreditation

Whereas, In response to the 2002 Accreditation Standards, outside agencies or stakeholders (e.g., faculty on intersegmental groups, textbook publishers and consultants) have begun to create Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) with reference to local courses and programs;

Whereas, Local course, program and curriculum planning and development are matters of academic freedom and an area where local senates have primacy;

Whereas, Courses are determined for articulation based upon content and objectives, not SLOs; and

Whereas, The outcomes/assessment movement has been infused into the accreditation process; and

Whereas, There has been no research presented to challenge this movement;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate develop a position paper on the outcomes/assessment movement.
MSC Disposition: Local Senates

Whereas the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges recognizes the importance of district-level support for colleges, and

Whereas district operations in multi-college districts have not been subjected to scrutiny by visiting teams sufficient to hold the district office accountable for properly supporting individual colleges, and

Whereas the Accrediting Commission has developed a draft policy intended to make multi-campus district offices more accountable for supporting the colleges in their respective districts,

Whereas self-study reports are often written by faculty, and

Whereas a significant amount of time and expertise is required to develop an effective self-study report, and

Whereas no guidelines currently exists for those engaged in this important task,

Resolved that the Academic Senate urge districts to provide adequate reassigned time and other necessary support to faculty assigned to developing and editing self-study reports, and

Whereas the accreditation visiting teams must include faculty, and

Whereas the Commission has in the past appointed faculty who are newly hired administrators, acting or interim administrators, and

Whereas the visiting teams are consistently made up of a majority of administrators;

Resolved that the Academic Senate urge the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges to appoint representatives to accrediting teams who maintain faculty status for the duration of the appointment, and

Whereas, The new Accreditation Standards require data collection at the levels of the classroom, the program, and the institution;

Whereas, Curriculum, degree and program policies, and grading policies are academic and professional matters, wherein local academic senates have primacy; and

Whereas, The management of Student Learning Outcomes is an ongoing process and, therefore, separate from the cyclical processes surrounding Accreditation Self-Studies;

Whereas in Spring 84 the Academic Senate passed a resolution requesting that all communications concerning each successive step in the accreditation process and follow-up that are sent by the Accreditating Commission to the Chief Executive Officer also be sent to the local academic senate president, and

Whereas this policy has not been fully implemented,

Whereas faculty chairs/co-chairs of accreditation self-studies are still occasionally appointed by college presidents, and

Whereas shared governance makes the local senate the appropriate body to appoint faculty to all college-wide committees,

Resolved that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges urge local senates to appoint faculty chairs and/or co-chairs to accreditation self-study committees, and

Whereas, One of the purposes of an accreditation team visit is to verify the accuracy of a college self-study;

Whereas, Accreditation visiting teams are no longer required to observe a selection of classroom activities; and

Whereas, Direct observation of classroom activities is a vital component of any verification process;

Whereas, The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) has placed an increasing number of California community colleges on probation or warning;

Whereas, Many California community colleges are struggling to respond to the accreditation standards and recommendations;

Whereas, Information collected about these recommendations would assist colleges in responding to ACCJC; and