Friday, January 25, 2008

Update on Accreditation Status

Much has occurred since I last shared the information about SLIS and our accreditation efforts. The faculty are actively engaged in strategic planning, an essential foundational piece for our upcoming accreditation visit. One important milestone for having a successful accreditation visit in March of 2009 involves regular reporting on our planning process to the Committee on Accreditation (COA), the body that decides whether to accredit a School of Library and Information Science such as CUA-SLIS. In December, 2007, I submitted a detailed report on our progress. For the purposes of ensuring all of our constituents are informed, I attach a copy of the Executive Summary of that document here for your perusal. In addition, the Provost of the University, Dr. James Brennan, and I met with the Committee on Accreditation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss the School's progress and garner their feedback on our approach to reaffirming our accreditation status in 2009. This was a very productive meeting. The response from the COA was generally positive and they did not express any concern with our efforts, in fact, they were complimentary of our efforts. I will provide a copy of the PowerPoint slides of my talk with the COA on the soon-to-be-released accreditation web site. We are currently working on a web site for the accreditation process at CUA-SLIS to keep you informed and to provide a location for documents and updates to supplement my blog.

There is much that remains to be done. Our next milestone is the Plan for Program Presentation we will submit to the COA in March of 2008. I will also be hosting a series of forums to give everyone an opportunity to discuss our progress and ask questions on our approach and status.

Thank you again for your support and interest in SLIS!