The University awaits an early Christmas present on Tuesday — a stamp of approval from its accrediting body affirming its qualification to grant degrees.
A panel of members Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges met this weekend and today in Nashville, Tennessee, to review documents about how the University operates and affirm the University’s accreditation, said Gil Reeve, University vice provost for academic programs, planning and review.
For more than two years, a team of administrators and professors at the University have systematically gone through each department of the institution and documented its functions and processes to send to SACSCOC for the review.
The University committee sent in the last document in September and has waited for four months to hear the final word this week.
Without the reaffirmation of accreditation from SACSCOC, the degrees from the University are just certificates of time and money spent.
The University’s funding and students’ ability to obtain grants and financial aid also depend partly on the outcome of this process, said Randy Duran, director of the University Office of Undergraduate Research earlier this year.
“SACSCOC doesn’t approve individual degree programs,” Reeve said. “They approve institutional programs. They accredit the institution to deliver degree programs.”
For example, Reeve said if the University is creating a new degree program, it does not have to be approved by the accrediting body, but the processes behind its creation does.
There are about 98 standards set by the SACSCOC to ensure the operations of an institution of higher education are the best for students. Every corner of the University is covered, from the processes used to make decisions regarding classes and degrees to how administration works, according to its website.
The University completed a report showing its compliance with all of the standards in Sept. 2013. The report was then sent back with 17 recommendations for change, which were reevaluated during a campus visit by SACSCOC members in March.
After the March visit, the members had more recommendations for changes for the University to make to match all of the standards. The most important recommendation, Reeve said, was to develop a method to evaluate LSU President F. King Alexander.
Reeve compared the process of reaffirmation of accreditation to a hurdle race; the University had to leap over several obstacles to make it to this week.
Reeve said he is confident the University will be given the all-clear to keep awarding degrees for another decade.