The reason a Monmouth College diploma is worth anything beyond the cost of the paper it’s printed on is because a government-sanctioned body has acknowledged its legitimacy as an institute of higher learning and vouched for its accountability to certain standards. If you’re still contemplating whether or not you want to finish reading this article, keep in mind that the benefits of accreditation will follow you well after college as you go on your post-graduate job search. In fact, it could be the edge you need to beat out an applicant with a degree from Taco Bell Internet University.

Schools are typically evaluated on a cycle of once every ten years. Accreditation is a voluntary process, and MC  has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) since 1913. The HLC is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, but is itself a nongovernmental body. The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools is one of six regional bodies under the authority of the HLC; it manages a region of nineteen states, amounting to approximately 1,100 institutions.

The HLC has appointed a team of six faculty and administrators from other colleges to visit Monmouth College on March 3-5. Their visit will be part of the ongoing institutional accreditation process that Monmouth began preparing for as early as 2005. Institutional accreditation, according to the HLC website, is an evaluation of “an entire educational organization in terms of its mission and the agency’s standards or criteria. It accredits the organization as a whole.” This is instead of specialized accreditation which “evaluates particular units, schools or programs within an organization.”

Jane Jakoubek, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty, calls the accreditation process “an opportunity for an institution to evaluate its own programs and identify areas to improve.” Monmouth opted to conduct a special emphasis self-study. This is only slightly different than the two-year self-study that all institutions are expected to conduct in anticipation of their HLC evaluation. Schools who choose this option are choosing  to give particular attention to one aspect of their institutions. Monmouth chose to address its integrated studies program, the core of its liberal arts curriculum. Jakoubek said this was only possible because “Monmouth was able to demonstrate it effectively met the core requirements for accreditation.” They started collecting materials in 2006 in preparation for the upcoming visit, but it reaches back as far fall 2005 when President Ditzler appointed a group of faculty and administrators to lead the study. 

The study was an all-encompassing investigation of how the school measures up to both HLC standards, as well as the college’s own mission and goals. The faculty accreditation committee conducted surveys, collected documents and held focus sessions, all of which amounted to a 79-page report which, according to Jakoubek, “concludes by saying, on the one hand, that the College has done an effective job on the whole in developing and implementing Integrated Studies, and on the other hand that there are some recommendations for ways to improve.” The HLC team will be gathering evidence to compare to the results of the self-study.

The criteria for accreditation has changed in the ten years since Monmouth’s last visit from the HLC, and Monmouth has tried to keep up with the new requirements. The Commission will be the final word on how well they have done this, and following a review process, they will draft a report that will end in a recommendation for or against reaccreditation and under what conditions. Then, the Commission will meet this summer to decide whether or not they will accept the recommendation. Jakoubek says there is no reason to believe that Monmouth College will fall short of a ten year reaccreditation. Jakoubek says, “My own perspective on this accreditation is interesting because I was one of the team that visited Monmouth College in 1998 (our last review).  I was very, very impressed by the gains the College had made since the early 1990s, by the quality and scale of campus improvements that were underway, and by the commitment and sense of community found in and among faculty and staff.” 

Part of the College’s responsibility in the accreditation process was to inform the campus community of the impending assessment, and to make them aware of their right to contribute their thoughts on the state of the College, which included a notice in The Courier during the fall 2007 semester. Students, faculty and staff were all welcomed to submit comments to be considered by the commission, on a confidential basis.  This invention was also extended to the town of Monmouth, the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and any other persons or bodies with ties to the College. If you would like to offer your thoughts on MC, good or bad, you may still have a chance. The HLC team will be collecting statements during their visit, speaking informally to individuals and groups on campus.

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