Accreditation team visits

February 16, 2004

Accreditation team visits UCSC

UCSC was visited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges' accreditation team February 4-6. The visit was a critical step in the association's review to determine whether the campus should have its WASC status reaffirmed.

Photo of Chancellor Greenwood and accreditation team

Chancellor Greenwood, front and center, is joined by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges team. From left front are Pat Cross, Chancellor Greenwood, Cristina González, Farris Womack, James Duderstadt, and Norman Scott. Photo: Lynda Goff

WASC contact information:
985 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100
Alameda, CA 94501
(510) 748-9001

"It was an exciting time for all the parties," said vice provost and dean of undergraduate education Lynda Goff, chair of UCSC's WASC Review Task Force. "The process afforded us the opportunity to learn a great deal from each other as well as from the accreditation team."

The review process has been revised considerably since 1994, the last time the campus was accredited, Goff said.

"Under the new process, each institution is asked to propose a self-study that is focused on issues germane to its particular mission, stage of development, and institutional context," she explained. "There is an emphasis on measuring educational effectiveness and demonstrating student learning."

In September 2002, the task force chose to focus its accreditation on three main topics: the expansion of UCSC's graduate programs, undergraduate student engagement, and restructuring departmental review procedures with a focus on the undergraduate curricula.

Visiting the campus in February were James Duderstadt, president emeritus, University of Michigan; Cristina González, former dean of graduate studies at UC Davis and now special assistant to the UCD chancellor; K. Patricia Cross, professor emerita of UC Berkeley and Harvard University; Norman R. Scott, former vice president of research at Cornell University; and Farris W. Womack, former executive vice president and chief financial officer at the University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina, as well as former chief financial officer for the states of Arkansas and North Carolina.

The February visit was just one step in the accreditation process; a second campus visit, an "educational effectiveness review," is scheduled for a year from now.

See earlier Currents Online story on the accreditation process at UCSC.

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