Six years have passed since the last accreditation visit, which means Mesa College is now due for another evaluation visit in March, the results of which will be decided in June. “Accreditation reaffirms our ability for federal funding…for student aid and things such as that. So inasmuch as it gives us that credibility, it’s excellent for the student as well…” says English Professor Chris Sullivan. For students, accreditation is essentially the difference between earning credits that can transfer, and just earning a certificate that says you took a class. In other words, if a school loses its accreditation, then it loses its legitimacy, but does that mean staff and students should worry? No.
Mesa College has not had any issues being reaffirmed by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, who oversee accreditation for many schools along the West Coast. The evaluation report for the last accreditation visit in 2010 can be seen on Mesa’s website. Some commendations made by the ACCJC were the completion of new buildings, the resourcefulness of the Learning Resource Center, improved student involvement, and effective budget planning. Of course, there were some things recommended by the ACCJC for the successful future of Mesa. One major recommendation was to create more precise goals in order to collect definitive data on student effectiveness that can be used for budget planning in the future.
Accreditation is a four step process that is now supposed to take place every seven years (beginning last spring). According to the ACCJC, the first step is a self-evaluation completed by the institution (in this case Mesa College) that is then sent to the ACCJC for review. Sullivan, who took part in writing the previous internal evaluation, said this can take about two years to complete. Next, a team of volunteer professionals from other institutions conduct their own evaluation and give recommendations on how to make improvements where necessary. The evaluation is then reviewed by the ACCJC on whether to reaffirm accreditation, where more recommendations are given. The fourth step is when the school takes the recommendations into account and makes improvements based on them.
It was announced in October by the ACCJC that Dr. Erika Lacro, Chancellor of Honolulu Community College, would lead the evaluation this March.
Although there is no current threat or suspicion of Mesa losing its accreditation, there have been other schools in the past that have not always had favorable results after an evaluation. The San Diego Union Tribune reported last year that Southwestern College failed in 15 areas, including “fiscal services, budget planning and controls in place on the institution’s financial resources.” The Union Tribune also reported that Southwestern was almost shut down after being put on a one year probation period back in 2010. A list of 18 different colleges around the nation that have had their accreditation revoked or denied since 2000 can be seen on the website for The Wall Street Journal.
