INSTITUTIONAL
ACCREDITATION AT EMU
April 26, 2012
ISPC Meeting
AQIP AS AN ACCREDITATION PATHWAY
 Rooted in continuous improvement principles and practices
 Systems Portfolio: Examination of effectiveness of operating
processes, process results and improvements, and goals
 Online at www.emich.edu/portfolio
 Other components of AQIP participation:
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Action Projects
Strategy Fora
“Quality Check-Up” visit
Reaffirmation of accreditation
HLC CRITERIA FOR ACCREDITATION
To maintain accreditation, institutions must document
conformity to five criteria:
1. Mission and integrity
2. Preparing for the future
3. Student learning and effective teaching
4. Acquisition, discovery, and application of knowledge
5. Engagement and service
Each criterion includes several core components.
Successes:
 Transitioning from “pockets” of well-intentioned to more
integrated and effective structures that optimize
conditions for learning
 Transitioning from “what is taught” to “what is learned”
and from “service approval” to “service impact”
1
Opportunities & Challenges:
Helping Students
learn
 The need to better couple learning and developmental
outcomes with experiences and services offered across
campus.
 Honest conversation about whether services offered
have the impact desired … and, if not, what do we need
to change?
 Identify and correct ways in which one unit’s work
maybe unintentionally crossing purposes against other
units… and undermining student success.
 Need to create a “system’s thinking” web approach – a
networked infrastructure that is both physical and
philosophical, that connects people sharing a common
vision of the whole student.
Selected Distinctive Objective:
Community engagement projects that are
educationally-focused
Opportunities & Challenges:
 Developing a strategic focus for community
engagement, reflecting the institutional strategic
plan
 Developing systematic processes for (1)
evaluating the impact of our work to enrich communities and (2) communicating, internally and
externally, the processes and impacts of our work
to enrich communities
2
Accomplishing Other
Distinctive Objectives
Strengths:
 The sheer number and variety of engagements
that reflect symbiotic relationships focused on
well-being of communities, including lifelong
learning and professional development
3
Understanding
Students’ and Other
Stakeholders’ Needs
Strengths:
 Intentional, proactive approach to understanding
student and stakeholder needs, and addressing these
needs
 Innovative use of technology to understand, assess,
and serve students and stakeholders
 Improvements to campus facilities, and signage
Opportunities & Challenges:
 Using technology to merge data from distinct systems,
thus reducing inefficiencies in gathering and using data
 Becoming more responsive to younger potential
students (e.g., Early College Alliance, Gear Up, youth
in foster care)
 More consistent, accurate, and accessible academic
advising resources
4
Valuing People
Strengths:
 Recognizing and rewarding staff and faculty
 Campus infrastructure improvements that benefit
students, faculty and staff
 Using technology to improve the performance
management and improvement processes, emergency
preparedness, and campus safety.
Opportunities & Challenges:
 More systematic measurement of employee morale,
job satisfaction, and interest in innovative employee
benefit programs
 Developing an employee succession planning program
with a systematic approach to recruiting, retaining,
developing, and promoting faculty and staff … and
eventually phased retirement
 The challenge: become a nationally recognized great
academic workplace that fosters a culture of success,
high employee morale, and job satisfaction in the face
of challenging economic circumstances.
5
Leading and
Communicating
Strengths:
 Implemented a variety of processes to inform campus
and seek broad-based input
 Broadened support for leadership and skill
development
 Strong leadership in University Communications,
providing timely, transparent and consistent external
and internal messaging
Opportunities & Challenges:
 Extended programs: a potential strategic growth area
… in need of executive leadership
 Leadership training and succession planning,
especially for academic department heads
 A university-wide decision making process
6
Supporting
Institutional
Operations
Strengths:
 Major improvements in campus security
 Student satisfaction with many support services, both
academic and non-academic
Opportunities & Challenges:
 Developing more effective, consistent, & efficient data
sharing campus-wide to guide decisions
 Increasing efficiencies in order to reduce spending
without compromising service quality
Strengths:
 Comprehensive systems and infrastructure to select,
manage, and distribute information supporting
instructional and non-instructional programs
 A variety of techniques used to measure, analyze, and
improve institutional performance
Measuring
Effectiveness
Opportunities & Challenges:
 Streamline the academic program review processes
 Ensuring the compatibility between all secondary
information systems and the main Banner system
 Achieving shared understandings of "effectiveness"
across units
 Ensuring that unit-based data collection methods are
compatible
7
Strengths:
8
Planning
Continuous
Improvements
 Institutional Strategic Planning Council (ISPC):
established in 2006, restructured in March 2011,
completion of next plan expected in January 2013.
Milestones reached to date include:
 Revisiting university mission, vision and 5 year
goals, using input from over 2300 individuals
(faculty, staff, students, alumni, etc.)
 Developed web site & communication process,
environmental scan, economic and social impact
study, and program demand/sustainability analysis
 Intentional linkages forged among continuous
improvement, strategic planning, and university
budgeting
 Unit plans developed: Student Success Network,
Strategic Enrollment Network, Student Affairs and
Enrollment Management Division, Business and
Finance Division, Department of Information
Technology, College of Arts & Sciences, College of
Health & Human Services
Opportunities & Challenges:
8
Planning
Continuous
Improvements
 University Strategic Plan: Will provide a framework
within which to align:
 Data analysis and use in decisions
 Assessing performance and outcomes
 Priorities, as reflected in resource availability and
allocation
 Unit-level plans
9
Building
Collaborative
Relationships
Strengths:
 Staff, faculty and students: all involved in communities
through volunteering, experiential learning, grants,
consulting
 Campus units dedicated solely to linking the university
and the region (Nonprofit Leadership Alliance,
Academic Service Learning, VISION, Career
Services, Institute for the Study of Children, Families
and Communities)
Opportunities & Challenges:
 Creating strategic direction and cohesiveness in
community engagement
 Strengthening and expanding relationships with
community colleges
 Continued growth in international opportunities:
 Ambassadorial and Consular Corps Liaison Office
 Master’s International at EMU
THEMES OF OUR SUCCESSES AND
CHALLENGES
Ongoing
Evaluation &
Improvement
Applying Technology
… Purposefully
Achieving Cohesiveness
Becoming More
Strategic