The New England Association of Schools and Colleges will evaluate USM this month to ensure that the university adequately fulfills the strict standards for accreditation.
An evaluation team made up of eight members from other NEASC accredited institutions will visit USM April 10-13. The NEASC visitors are led by Patricia Meservey, president of Salem State University in Massachusetts.
USM must undergo an accreditation evaluation once every ten years in order to remain an accredited institution. The university’s last review was in 2001, with a five year review in 2006.
NEASC provides accreditation services to institutions throughout New England. The organization evaluates both public and private institutions from the elementary level up through the collegiate level.
USM’s accreditation evaluation is based on a NEASC Self-Study Report, written by a steering committee of USM faculty, staff, and students. The report takes an in-depth look at how USM fulfills each of the eleven standards that must be met in order to receive accreditation. The eleven standards are guidelines for what is expected of USM in order to achieve a successful site review.
The steering committee is made up of eleven subcommittees and 200 members. Each subcommittee evaluates USM according to one of the eleven NEASC standards such as Mission and Purposes, Planning and Evaluation, and Organization and Government to name a few. A subcommittee has at least two co-chairs and some have over ten members collaborating with the chairs.
“Committees ranged in size from 4 to 15 members and met for a period of over a year,” said Luisa Deprez, professor of sociology and women and gender studies at USM. Deprez said that subcommittees developed responses to particular NEASC standards and criteria that the Steering Committee was asked to address.
Deprez was appointed to lead the steering committee by Mark Lapping who served as USM’s provost from 2007-2008. Deprez said the committee for 2011 was formed two years ago and has been drafting the 100 page self-study report for the last eight months.
Bob Caswell, executive director of public affairs and co-chair of the Public Disclosure Committee, one of the eleven subcommittees, said the self-study report is an honest appraisal of how USM is meeting NEASC standards and those standards are related to the academic progress, student services, faculty, library resources, finances and six other areas.
USM’s self-study report was submitted to NEASC in February and the final step of the process is the site review.
According to Deprez, the NEASC visitors will be engaged in back to back public discussion forums. During these discussions, USM will be examined by faculty, staff, students, and members of the community according to the university’s current progress and goals in each of the eleven categories.
Following the site review the visiting committee will make a recommendation to NEASC about when USM should be reviewed again during the ten years between accreditation evaluations.
“Usually [NEASC] will say five years, but given the financial issues universities are having, it’s not unusual for them to come back sooner than that,” said Deprez.
According to Deprez, the first pages of the self-study report inform NEASC of USM’s ongoing restructuring process.
“The final stages of this restructuring has not yet occurred and we don’t essentially know what it will look like when we are done,” said Deprez who also said that NEASC may return sooner than five years from now in order to evaluate how successful the restructuring has been.
Deprez said she is optimistic that USM will receive a positive site review and retain accreditation.
“I think that our report is really very strong. I think it’s very honest, very open,” she said.