by Corinne Layton, Accreditation Steering Committee Co-Chair
An important element of the Accreditation process and the writing of the Self-Study is the involvement of all stakeholders. During 2015-16 a concerted effort was made to involve administration, faculty, staff, students and the community on the Steering Committee, focus, work and home groups and at a variety of meetings and special events. We conducted monthly Steering Committee meetings, two Accreditation Forums, a Joint Strategic Planning and Accreditation meeting, a Joint Strategic Planning meeting with community partners and a meeting with the Associated Student Body at Mid-City Campus. Updates were also given at Convocation, Academic and Classified Senate, Executive Governance Council, and in the SDCE Newsletter.
This fall we will continue to involve all stakeholders as the Self-Study is vetted and approved through our participatory governance structure. In September the Self-Study will be vetted and approved by the Accreditation Steering Committee, Academic and Classified Senates, the Associated Student Body, President’s Cabinet and Executive Governance Council. In October the Vice-Chancellors’ office will review sections of the Self-Study for fact-check, and in November the Chancellor’s Cabinet and District Governance Council will give their final review and approval. In December the Self-Study will be submitted to the SDCCD Board for approval prior to the January submission of the Self-Study to WASC.
Throughout the fall semester we will be actively preparing for the Accreditation visiting team site visits which will take place March 13-16, 2017. One of the ways we will be able to demonstrate what we do best is by creating evidence rooms for our individual programs at various campuses. Preparing for the site visits will be a team effort as we determine how to best showcase the great work done by SDCE.