Accreditation team visit to Hartnell College completed

A team from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges concluded a visit to Hartnell last Thursday, and before departing, they issued five commendations and 12 recommendations, according to Spokeswoman Terri Pyer.

The college was commended for its cooperative spirit in making necessary changes, for offering unique and innovative programs, for providing architecturally interesting and inviting learning spaces, and for the innovative use of physical resources in King City and at the Alisal Campus. Its foremost commendation went to the president of the college, Willard Lewallen, who was praised for assessing the institution's needs immediately upon arrival on July 1, 2012.

Among the team's recommendations to the college were to develop processes to evaluate its mission regularly; to develop comprehensive planning processes, including strategic and annual plans; to standardize student learning results, service learning results and program-level results, and provide training for staff on how to accomplish this; to improve staff evaluation processes; to develop and implement a stable administrative structure; and to evaluate its participatory governance model. The team noted that much of this work has been started at the college, but that the college must continue this work and complete the planning and assessment cycle.

Over the next few months, the team will provide its commendations and recommendations to the college in a written report, inviting the college to respond to any factual errors. Then the report will be forwarded to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The commission will meet in June to consider all of the evidence submitted to it, including the college's self-evaluation and the report of the visiting team, and will issue its decision on the college's accredited status.

Accreditation is a voluntary system of self-regulation of schools and colleges developed to evaluate overall educational quality. The process provides assurance to the public that each accredited college meets the standards for a degree-granting institution of higher education. Every six years, institutions renew the process, which includes completing a self-evaluation and being reviewed by a visiting team to determine whether the college meets standards related to institutional mission and effectiveness, student learning programs and services, the effective use of resources, and leadership and governance. The accreditation cycle requires reaffirmation of accreditation every six years.