SACSCOC Reaffirmation
August 24, 2018
Objective: During the 2018-2019 academic year, UTRGV will be preparing its SACSCOC reaffirmation of accreditation document. Preparation of the reaffirmation document will provide an opportunity for the university to examine its practices, policies and procedures, especially those that impact student success. At the heart of the SACSCOC reaffirmation process is the commitment to engagement and continuous improvement. Select administrators, staff, and faculty with special expertise or responsibilities across all divisional areas of the university will be involved in the preparation of the self-study document. Because of their areas of responsibility, many of these individuals will likely be involved with other initiatives identified in this communication. A final draft of the reaffirmation self-study should be completed by May 1, 2019 with the final version to be submitted to SACSCOC by September 1, 2019. Off-site and on-site committee reviews will occur during the 2019-2020 academic year with a board decision to occur in December 2020.
More information: www.utrgv.edu/en-us/about-utrgv/accreditation/
Contact: If you have questions or suggestions, please email project coordinator Dr. Christine Shupala.
Updates
April 13, 2020
In November 2019, we received a very positive report from the SACSCOC offsite committee on the SACSCOC Compliance Certification Report submitted in September 2019. In the next phase of the reaffirmation process, a SACSCOC onsite team visited UTRGV March 2-5, 2020, and met with various groups of faculty, staff, students, and administrators in both Brownsville and Edinburg to learn more about our facilities, programs, and services. They visited off-campus teaching sites in Weslaco and Harlingen, and provided feedback on our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). At the conclusion of the visit, the committee’s report reflected the best possible outcome of no findings. The onsite committee will submit its report to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, which will vote on our reaffirmation at the December 2020 SACSCOC Annual Meeting.
For more information, contact Christine.Shupala@utrgv.edu.
October 31, 2019
On October 3, 2019 you received a detailed update regarding our SACSCOC reaffirmation process and timeline. As a reminder, we submitted our SACSCOC Compliance Certification Report in September. The off-site review team will meet later this month and provide feedback in the form of a written report, which we will receive in November. We will address any questions from the off-site review in a Focused Report, which will be submitted in early January 2020 for review by a team of on-site reviewers. The on-site team will visit UTRGV in March 2020. The on-site review team will submit their report to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, which will vote on our reaffirmation in December 2020.
For more information, contact Christine Shupala at Christine.Shupala@utrgv.edu.
October 3, 2019
We are happy to report that the SACSCOC Compliance Certification Report was successfully submitted in September 2019. We appreciate the assistance we received from faculty, staff, and administrators who contributed time, energy, support, writing and documentation that enabled us to produce a comprehensive compliance report. The submission of the report begins the next phase in the reaffirmation process. This next phase includes opportunities for us to address any questions that might arise as our off-site peer review team evaluates our compliance with SACSCOC standards. It also includes the development and submission of a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The QEP focuses on targeted efforts to enhance student success at UTRGV based on our strategic plan and an analysis of data to identify barriers to success. We are currently working on development of the QEP and will have more information available on it in the near future.
Our off-site review team will meet later this month and provide feedback in the form of a written report, which we will receive in November. Because the off-site review team only has access to our report and documentation, they will have questions about some sections of the report which we will address in a Focused Report. The Focused Report, like the Compliance Certification Report we just submitted, will include narrative and documentation. We will work closely with our SACSCOC writing teams and other stakeholders to prepare the Focused Report.
In early January 2020 we will submit our Focused Report and our QEP for review by a team of on-site reviewers. The on-site team will visit UTRGV March 2-5, 2020 and will meet with faculty, staff, administrators and students. As we approach the on-site visit, our on-site reviewers will tell us who they want to interview while they are visiting us. We will contact those who need to participate in meetings as soon as we have the list of requested meetings. Our on-site team will spend time in both Edinburg and Brownsville, as well as visiting one or two additional off-campus teaching sites. The on-site review team will submit their report to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, who will vote on our reaffirmation in December 2020.
As we move forward with this phase of the reaffirmation, we ask that you continue to make addressing requests related to the reaffirmation process a top priority. Thank you again for your support throughout the report development phase and we look forward to the successful completion of the reaffirmation process!
June 18, 2019
We are pleased to provide an update on UTRGV’s SACSCOC reaffirmation preparations. Last week, our SACSCOC Vice President was on campus for an advisory visit. During her visit she met with several of our writing teams and provided feedback on draft narratives. She was very complimentary about our work to date, noting the obvious hard-work of our writers and the level of detail provided in our drafts. Her remarks were detailed and designed to further enhance our ability to demonstrate compliance with the SACSCOC standards. She also met with our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) team and discussed our ideas and options for the QEP.
As we enter the summer months, we are finalizing drafts and completing the collection of documentation to submit with the reaffirmation report. The report will be completed and sent to SACSCOC on September 1, 2019. As we work to finalize the report, we appreciate the continued efforts of our writers and others who are assisting by providing documentation, ensuring writers have time to complete their work, providing feedback on drafts, and otherwise enabling us to complete a comprehensive assessment of our compliance with SACSCOC standards. As we approach the finish line on the report, we ask that you continue to make addressing reaffirmation-related requests a top priority.
The submission of our reaffirmation report in September 2019 is the first step in the reaffirmation process. After the reaffirmation report is submitted to SACSCOC it will be reviewed by an off-site committee of SACSCOC peer reviewers. They will provide initial feedback on our compliance with the standards, sending us a report in late fall 2019. We will have the opportunity to address any questions they have in writing, preparing a second report that will be submitted in January 2020 along with our QEP plan. In March 2020 we will have an on-site visit from a peer review committee. This committee will meet with stakeholders across the University including faculty, staff, administrators, and students. They will also provide feedback on the QEP and visit several of our locations. They will prepare a final report addressing our compliance with the SACSCOC standards. All reports will be submitted to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees for review at the December 2020 meeting. At that meeting, the SACSCOC Board of Trustees will vote on our reaffirmation.
We cannot overstate the importance of the work you are doing to support our successful reaffirmation or our gratitude for your efforts. We understand that summer is a very busy time for everyone and your assistance is very much appreciated.
April 18, 2019
We are excited to report that writing teams across the university have been hard at work gathering documentation and drafting narratives for the SACSCOC reaffirmation. We are making progress toward completing many drafts and working with our consultant, who is providing useful feedback for enhancing our report. We are on a tight completion schedule, with a goal of completing the vast majority of draft writing by the end of May. This will give us the summer to complete minor revisions, as well as the document collection and report preparation.
We want to thank those who have been writing and those who have supported writing by ensuring that the procedures and processes we have in place are well documented, providing examples and documentation, and providing feedback on narratives. We appreciate what you have done so far. As part of our effort to produce an exemplary report, we have invited our SACSCOC Vice President to campus in June 2019 to review several of the completed standards and provide feedback from a SACSCOC staff perspective. As we move closer to upcoming deadlines, we ask that you continue to make addressing requests related to the reaffirmation a top priority.
November 30, 2018
UTRGV learned at the December 2017 SACSCOC Board meeting that while we had successfully addressed the items originally cited in the January 2017 notification letter, the SACSCOC Board wanted validation from an external auditor that issues cited in our FY 2016 audit had been fully addressed. A Special Committee of our peers visited campus last month to review evidence of compliance with specific standards of the principle cited in the January 2017 notification letter. The results of the visit are very encouraging, and the visiting committee’s report may be obtained by clicking here. Please keep in mind that the findings of this visiting committee represent a preliminary assessment of the institution at this time; final action on the report rests with the Commission on Colleges. We await a decision from the SACSCOC Board in December.