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Columns::August 6, 2001
Alternate routes
Opening Convocation will feature student initiatives
Full house: Residence halls fill up, students placed in overflow space
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Nesbit named associate VP and budget director
Campus News
UGA reaccredited; SACS also praises undergrad initiative
By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
Following a report that lauds UGA for efforts to strengthen undergraduate education, the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has formally reaffirmed the university’s accreditation.
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Bob Bohemer
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The reaffirmation is official notification that UGA complies with the basic requirements and standards set by SACS, the university’s chief accrediting agency. As part of the reaffirmation process, the university received a report that contains several commendations to university units and administrators for outstanding performance.
The report also contains 14 recommendations and a number of suggestions to improve operations in academic and administrative areas. Under SACS rules, the university must comply with the recommendations; it is not required to implement the suggestions, but should take them into consideration.
President Michael F. Adams has given SACS a response to the report that outlines steps the university has taken, or will take, to follow up on each recommendation and suggestion.
The report presents the findings of a SACS Reaffirmation Committee that visited UGA in February to review the work of the university’s two-year self-study. UGA must conduct a comprehensive self-evaluation every 10 years to retain accreditation by SACS.
In addition to showing that it meets SACS compliance standards, UGA used the self-study to look in greater depth at ways to achieve one of its major institutional goals--improving undergraduate education. This part of the self-study focused specifically on four areas: physical facilities, undergraduate research, information technology, and factors that affect the quality of the undergraduate experience.
In its report, the Reaffirmation Committee commends the university for focusing on undergraduate education, and cites the initiative as evidence of the university’s commitment to be a “student-centered” institution that gives priority to teaching, student research and other educational opportunities.
Adams says he is pleased with the self-study review process and especially with the report.
“I am confident this is as positive a report as a major research university can receive,” says Adams. “One of the most valuable parts of this process is the self-study, because it helps identify areas in which an institution such as ours, which is doing things very well, can still find room for improvement.”
The university received the report in April and filed its response in May. SACS sent official notice of reaffirmation in June.
Robert Boehmer, who directed the self-study, says the university could have waited until this fall to respond to the report, and would then have been considered for reaffirmation at the SACS annual meeting in December.
“The fact that we elected to file the response in May, so it could be considered at a SACS meeting in June, exemplifies the attitude the university community has demonstrated throughout the self-study process, and gives me optimism about the implementation of the work of our self-study committees,” Boehmer says. “I am confident the university will address the issues in the report and move forward to implement changes as needed without delay.”
The committee issued five commendations, which recognize areas of excellence. Three are for the university’s efforts to enhance undergraduate education.
One commendation applauds the decision to focus the self-study on the undergraduate experience, and cites the Office of Instructional Support and Development and the Teaching Academy for contributing to better undergraduate learning.
Another commendation says the committee is “extraordinarily impressed by the vision” behind the university’s residential initiative, which brings instruction, research, advising and other education activities into residence halls.
The commendation cites the housing department, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and the vice presidents for instruction and student affairs for using the residential initiative to create “an environment in which undergraduate research will take root and flourish.”
“The residential initiative is a key part of our overall strategy to improve undergraduate education,” says Karen Holbrook, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “It provides powerful and exciting new ways for our students to study and learn, and we are delighted that it is recognized so prominently in the SACS report.”
A third commendation praises UGA for “recognizing and responding to the challenges of its rapidly changing undergraduate student population” by creating a “holistic learning environment.” This commendation singles out the Honors Program and its Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities as examples of programs that “[renew] the school’s focus upon creating a culture of student-centered learning.”
The committee also issued a commendation to the Physical Plant Division “for the outstanding maintenance of its beautiful campus grounds,” and a commendation citing the excellence of UGA’s continuing education and public service and outreach programs.
The committee said UGA should demonstrate that graduates are competent in oral communication and basic computer skills, and should make this an explicit requirement in publications used for student advising. The university response notes that the University Council Curriculum Committee will develop a policy to implement the recommendation.
Boehmer says the university will submit its first follow-up report showing action on the recommendations by April 2002.
The suggestions in the report cover a range of topics, including procedures for handling written complaints from students, methods for student evaluation of teachers, mentoring and academic advising for graduate students, acquisition funding for the law library, incorporation of information technology into the curriculum and increases in classroom and laboratory space.
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