Success!
UT Dallas received positive comments from committee members as they finished their reports regarding our reaffirmation; however the official word has now hit the streets: UTD was officially reaffirmed as a member of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools with a posting on the SACS web site Tuesday, 16 December 2008.
Thanks to the many, many people who participated in our reaffirmation process and who helped to continue to improve our internal processes. As a result of our SACS Reaffirmation project, we have now more formally structured our assessment procedures, created better tools for submitting course syllabi, and enhanced our students’ learning opportunities, especially in mathematics and sciences (GEMS).
Another interesting by-product of this process has been a revealing of talent among a number of people, talents that could easily have escaped notice if not for their being tapped to participate in this process.
I am grateful to Simon Kane for having so deftly handled our many technical obstacles; to Serenity King for her selfless editing that has now led to her being named an Assistant Provost who works extensively with new academic program development; to Mona Metcalf who tirelessly worked to scan, scan, and scan some more all the many documents that comprised our 120K page submission (okay, not printed page so much as web page); to Metta Alsobrook who tackled assessment processes with a zeal that defies description; to Abby Kratz and John Sibert who worked with the QEP and developed a successful project now known as GEMS; and to Pete Bernardin, JoyLynn Reed, Julie Allen, Diane Griffith, and a host of others who simply contributed in ways that almost no one else could have possibly noticed but without whose work we simply would have flailed about. And while it may go without saying, I am grateful to Robert Nelsen who, against his own better judgment, accepted the challenge and thus became a SACS/COC guru whose opinion is now well regarded across the State of Texas. Robert’s leadership, both tireless and nurturing, helped us all meet the demands of the project without imploding (although we came close despite his best efforts now and then).
So, as much as I would love to say, “It’s over,” it is far from over. SACS and COC reaffirmation is an ongoing process that requires UT Dallas stay alert to its internal processes as well as to external requirements and that requires the university continue to monitor its own strengths and weaknesses, particularly in relation to how well we serve our students and our community-at-large.
We may take a break over the coming winter holiday season, but it’s back to business as usual come 5 January 2009. The meetings will continue; the assessment process will continue and continue to improve; the GEMS Center will continue to address student learning outcomes in mathematics and sciences, areas of critical importance to success at UT Dallas; and all of us will continue to review with a more critical eye the ways we can improve the university in its many facets.
…Richard Huckaba