[Sly Fox]

Most of you students may not care right now, but after you graduate and if you consider grad school this news is tremendous.

LU accreditation reaffirmed for 10 years

By Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
December 11, 2006

Liberty University’s accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has been reaffirmed for another 10 years.

The executive committee of the SACS’ Commission of Colleges reaffirmed LU’s accreditation at its meeting Monday in Orlando, Fla.

“For the past 2½ years we’ve been going through the affirmation process,” said LU Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Boyd C. Rist on Monday in a telephone interview from Orlando. “We do this every 10 years to be reaffirmed. This is great news.”

The Lynchburg school, which has about 9,600 residential students, was last accredited in 1996.

Monday’s reaffirmation of the accreditation marked the fourth time that LU accreditation has been reaffirmed.

“This is a huge milestone,” said LU Chancellor, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

The school was first accredited in 1980.

The commission looks at every aspect of the university, including its academic standards, financial resources, physical facilities and the qualifications of faculty among other attributes.

“They look at all the key indicators to determine if you are offering a quality collegiate education,” Rist said.

In order to meet the accreditation standards, LU had to perform a self study, which looked critically at a variety of attributes in the school’s programs.

“We have defined some areas where we felt we have some need to improve,” Rist said.

The school submitted that plan to a group of outside evaluators, who offered suggestions.

In February, a group of evaluators visited LU’s campus to determine if the school had adequately responded to the self-improvement plan.

“The commission looked at Liberty’s response … and determined it should have it acceditation reaffirmed for another 10 years,” Rist said.

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... ws!archive

[El Scorcho]

Having the SACS folks around can be stressful, but this affirmation is absolutely critical for us. Now we can start getting ready for 2016.

[SuperJon]

This is good news. When I was at the community college they were working on staying accredited.

[PAmedic]

that is great news. Nothing worse than having to explain to a prospective employer or admissions person why the college listed on your diploma doesn't exist anymore.

True story- family member.

[mrmacphisto]

...and Ron Godwin breathes a sigh of relief.

[PAmedic]

and puts the shotgun back in the cabinet

I KEED, I KEED

(sorry LUconn, stole that one from ya)

[Fumblerooskies]

This is huge, because, in addition to the obvious, now the university can start building new programs and revising the existing majors. Many of the academic expansion plans and program improvements were shelved the past two years due to the SACS visit.

[TDDance234]

This is huge, because, in addition to the obvious, now the university can start building new programs and revising the existing majors. Many of the academic expansion plans and program improvements were shelved the past two years due to the SACS visit.

Unfortauntly, the building new programs takes the much higher priority with the revising the exisiting majors taking a backseat. It's kind of like the schools philosophy of building. Let's start something new, get halfway done and move on to something else.

[bigsmooth]

let's keep it positive. this is great news regardless on how the school handles it's business.

[Fumblerooskies]

Unfortauntly, the building new programs takes the much higher priority with the revising the exisiting majors taking a backseat. It's kind of like the schools philosophy of building. Let's start something new, get halfway done and move on to something else.

I must disagree with you on that point. Most existing program changes must come from within the department. There is a push to get as many programs as possible on campus tied into accreditation of some sort. Once a program identifies an opportunity to tie into a national accreditation, the university generally supports the process academically and financially (to a point). Accredited programs bring in more students and can add to the prestige of the university. During the SACS process, program changes were requested to be held to a minimum until after affirmation. You will see changes, I suspect, in many of the existing programs, not to mention that new programs will be springing up all over. Thus...
...ultimately, the department faculty must have some motivation to instigate any proposed changes, and the process to change an existing major takes as long as an academic year to accomplish. I have found the university supportive and enthusiastic in encouraging program improvements in my time at LU.

[Sly Fox]

For the record, it is tough to build new programs especially in new fields. Its necessary to have profs with terminal degrees in all majors whether they currently exist at the time or not. Once you have your accreditation you can start the programs and then worry about getting thr terminal degree later.

Verdad, fumblerooskies?

[Fumblerooskies]

For the record, it is tough to build new programs especially in new fields. Its necessary to have profs with terminal degrees in all majors whether they currently exist at the time or not. Once you have your accreditation you can start the programs and then worry about getting thr terminal degree later.

Verdad, fumblerooskies?

Verdad? You have completely befuddled me on that word.

There are actually two ways of looking at new accreditation (typically a 2-4 year process) within the context of the university...
...We need the faculty and the facilities so we can start the process, or
...We can start the process and through a comprohensive self-study, we can justify the need for additional facilities and faculty, once the university commits to seeking the accreditation.

At LU, the second method has proven very effective.

[PAmedic]

Verdad? You have completely befuddled me on that word.

don't worry- he makes up stuff like that all the time- we simply ignore him

I think he meant "felice navidad"