02/03/09 - Accreditation – What our status means for our students
Solano Community College District (SCC) is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC). http://www.accjc.org
Since January 31, 2008, our accreditation has had a "Warning" sanction. ACCJC's letter states, "The accredited status of the institution continues during the warning period." This means SCC classes, past and present, are transferrable to other colleges.
The accreditation commission's concerns to date deal with Institutional Planning, Staffing and Organizational Stability, Fiscal Integrity and Stability, and Leadership, not classes.
Accreditation is the single most important issue that the College is actively and collectively addressing at all levels.
Classes will not be cancelled due to accreditation issues. Accreditation is given to the institution as a whole, not to classes.
We will keep our students, prospective student, college staff and the general public informed of our accreditation actions and progress in several ways:
Solano Community College's Governing Board, administration, faculty and staff are all responsible for accreditation and improving our status. We are committed to resolving the Commission's recommendations and to becoming accredited without sanctions.
SCC has already taken extraordinary steps to address and resolve ACCJC's recommendations:
Commissioned the "Administrative Review/Fiscal Health Analysis", December 17, 2008, by Education Management and Assistance Corporation (EdMAC), to provide specific action items regarding fiscal operations and stability, and accreditation recommendations
Hired Special Trustee Tom Henry, CEO of EdMAC, January 8, 2009, to guide and direct the Governing Board and administration in the recovery process
Held faculty accreditation and Board leadership workshops regarding ACCJC recommendations
Organized our accreditation team under Shared Governance for greater communication and cooperation
Established a "Corrective Action Matrix" plan to help ensure we address issues in a timely and comprehensive manner. This will be posted on our website weekly beginning in February.
Questions from the media or general public can be directed to:
Ross Beck, Director of Public Information, Marketing & Communications
"Accreditation is the process for evaluating and assuring the quality of education used by the American higher education community. It is a uniquely American quality assurance process through which institutions collectively set standards for good practice, conduct peer-based evaluations of institutions on a regular basis, confer accredited status on institutions, and make the results of accreditation review of institutions known to the public. Through accreditation, the higher education community shoulders the responsibility for monitoring the quality of the programs and services of member institutions. Agencies that develop and apply standards are often called accrediting commissions. Accrediting commissions were created by the collective group of institutions that wished to engage in the quality review and assurance process, and those institutions were and are referred to as the member institutions of a commission"
