Missouri S&T Re-accreditation Self-Study:

During the 2008-09 academic year, University of Missouri – Rolla will undergo an institution-wide accreditation review. Missouri S&T has maintained institutional accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools since 1913.  Missouri S&T was last reviewed in 1998 and received re-accreditation for ten years. Accreditation is an activity of great importance for the University because it is the gateway to participating in federal and state programs of benefit to higher education.   (In FY 05 Missouri S&T students received $18,061,114 in Federal Title IV financial aid which would not have been available without accreditation.)

Vice-Provost Harvest L. Collier is directing the campus-wide reaccreditation self-study.   He has composed a cross-University team to assist in steering the self-study and to consult widely with faculty, staff, and administrators in assembling its report.

The accreditation process has changed dramatically since Missouri S&T's review ten years ago.  It now requires evidence-based reporting linked to assessment and a demonstration that assessment outcomes are used for continual improvement.   The new set of criteria for accreditation that went into effect in 2004-2005:

1. Missionand 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 also has four or five Core Components that must be addressed. 

Over the next two years, all units will be asked to provide documentation of evidence-based reporting centered on the Higher Learning Commission (HLCC) Criteria for Accreditation. This will form the "complianceâ€? portion of the Missouri S&T re-accreditation self-study.  The self-study process is already underway.  Examples are required from each unit beginning in Fall 2006 with the final report scheduled for completion by Fall 2008. The process of re-accreditation will culminate in a visit by an external team of reviewer/consultants in Spring 2009.   

Re-accreditation will turn on the compliance section of the report, with the self-study proving a basis for institutional decisions and potentially new directions. It is expected that the self-study will provide an agenda that will serve as a guiding document for the university in the next ten to twenty years.

The Missouri S&T re-accreditation review self study steering Committee Members are:

• Harvest L. Collier, Vice Provost, Office of Undergraduate & Graduate Studies             
• Ralph E. Flori Jr, Asst Dean of Engineering, Department Interdisciplinary Engineering
• Amy M. Gillman, Assistant to the Vice Provost, Office of Undergrad & Graduate Studies         
• Jay Goff, Dean Enrollment Management                                                           
• Larry Dale Gragg, Distinguished Teaching Professor & Department Chair History & Political Science
• Eddie Grover-Bisker, Project Specialist, Office of Undergraduate & Graduate Studies
• Emily Petersen, Acting Director, Institutional Research & Assessment   
• Jinny Ryle, Executive Staff Assistant II, Office of the Provost                
• Lee W. Saperstein, Professor, Mining & Nuclear Engineering   
• Robert W. Schwartz, Professor, Materials Science & Engineering        
• Henry Allen Wiebe, Dean, School of Extended Learning
• Laura Stoll, Registrar

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