Group of students, professors and staff members examine how The College of Wooster fulfills its mission

Wyatt Smith

Features Editor

A committee of Wooster faculty, students and staff are finishing the first part of an institutional self-study and comprehensive review of the College, required to maintain accreditation. Over the past year and a half, the group has gathered evidence that the College is meeting its mission. They are now ready to present their preliminary findings and refine the report.

The feedback process started yesterday, Nov. 1, with “Campus Read In Day,” during which students, faculty and staff had a chance to respond to aspects of the self-study. The comments received from members of the College community will be used to ensure that the committee is accurately portraying the college and has not overlooked anything.

This lengthy and meticulous process is crucial to the College’s viability as an institution of higher learning. All colleges and universities must be accredited in order to receive federal funding, such as Pell Grants and research grants, and to be recognized as academically legitimate by other scholarly organizations.

While there is no real fear that Wooster will lose its accreditation, it must go through the process of compiling a comprehensive self-study and undergoing evaluation by the Higher Learning Commission — one of six accreditors in the United States — once every 10 years.

Wooster’s current self-study started in the spring of 2011, when its three co-chairs — Associate Professor of Psychology Gary Gillund, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Anne Nurse and Chief Information and Planning Officer Ellen Falduto — attended a conference in Chicago, where the HLC laid out the six criteria that must be met.

Gillund, Nurse and Falduto then organized six working groups, one for each of the HLC’s criteria.

“They focus on things you might imagine; the mission of the college, the assessment, teaching and learning, the financials, things like that,” said Nurse.

“The Higher Learning Commission really wants us to not only say that we’re meeting the criteria, but to provide evidence that we’re meeting the criteria,” added Gillund.

Since the spring of 2011, the groups collected and organized evidence that Wooster is indeed meeting the HLC’s six criteria. Yesterday’s Campus Read In Day marked a milestone in the development of the self-study. From now until the report is due in Feb., the committee will turn their bulleted lists of information into a cohesive and readable 200-page document.

“Ultimately what we’re going for is a nice, shiny report in text form that is customized to Wooster to make it useful to us, for strategic planning,” said Nurse. “That’s where we’re headed.”

Other notable aspects of the self-study process include a period in Jan. where more peripheral members of the College community, such as Wooster locals and alumni, can make comments about the College to the HLC. In April, after the self-study has been turned in, representatives from HLC will visit the campus to interview students, double-check the committee’s reports and generally make sure that Wooster’s review is accurate.

For more information about the self-study, visit its website at selfstudy.spaces.wooster.edu.