Reports from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) evaluation committee placed EC, along with several other community colleges, on warning Oct. 6, 2008 to correct nine “noted deficiencies.”
EC was required to complete two follow-up reports that established that EC is fixing the indicated problems. The first report was due in April and the second report is due Oct. 15, 2009.
Every institution that is placed on warning has two years to correct the noncompliances.
So far, EC has taken the necessary steps to correct the dings.
Recommendation 1, which requires that the college complete the full implementation process involving program review, tracking planning, budgeting, evaluation process and complete the cycle, has been previously cited and brought to attention during accreditation processes in 1990,1996 and 2002.
However, EC decided to ignore the notations and continued in the same fashion. But not to harp on EC, because procrastinating on such a laborious process is something most of us can understand.
Recommendation 3 involves revising the curriculum review processes and cycles. The reason for this recommendation is so that the large number of courses offered can be reviewed and updated regularly. EC was originally on a 10-year cycle because the amount of classes to be reviewed and the amount of detail involved took a long time.
Since the ACCJC recommended that we change from 10 to six, and to counteract the loss of four years, EC has recently implemented a fast-track program which facilitates the ease of class assessment for smaller issues.
To heed the current accreditation warning is the best course of action because the report is meant to uphold and improve the validity of an educational institution. If regulations were not in place and regularly observed, then accreditation would not exist and the standards of an educational facility would decline.
We should thank EC for complying with the warning and making such a concerted effort toward fixing the discrepancies.
We should also thank the ACCJC for doing its job and maintaining its side of the bargain.
Actions committed with integrity, such as EC’s willingness and the ACCJC’s effective observance, are really what make the world go around. They are proof that honorable institutions exist in this world of greed and fear.
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