Friday, March 27, 2009

March 27, 2009

The accreditation visit ended on March 24th. The exit briefing with the External Review Panel (ERP) was extremely valuable, informative and a reassuring ending to the visit that started on the 21st of March. We were quite fortunate to have an experienced, thoughtful, and diplomatic chair for our ERP, Dr. Jean Donham, who represented the American Library Association (ALA) very well and led the team during their visit here to campus. I feel privileged to have worked with her and she certainly had an excellent team to support her during the recent visit with SLIS.

I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the SLIS community. The outpouring of support was exemplary, the effort expended by our advisory board members, our alumni, our part-time faculty and our students was heart warming and an important element of the visit's success. I can honestly say that whatever the outcome of the visit, which I will know formally in July, the participation of the SLIS community was the most outstanding aspect of the visit and demonstrated how special the SLIS community of scholars and stakeholders is. The ERP mentioned how impressed they were with everyone who participated and what a delight all of the individuals were who joined us for the various events associated with the visit. I was overwhelmed by the response, by the level of participation, and the thoughtful feedback the ERP received that resulted in a positive impression for the ERP.

I cannot thank everyone enough. I can also state unequivocally that the success of the visit is due to your involvement, that you provided unparalleled support, and your support mattered a great deal. I am cautiously optimistic about the outcome of our visit. I am extremely proud of all of you, SLIS's stakeholders, and I thank each of you for what you did to contribute to our visit's success.

Now, let's plan the next seven years, shall we? :-)

I'll send out a prospective date/time for a party in July pending the decision of the Committee on Accreditation.
Again, my sincerest thanks.
Dean Kelley

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