University community prepares for 10-year accreditation visit

A review team from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), Iowa State's accrediting body, will be on campus March 30-31 to meet with students, faculty, staff and university leaders, as well as the Iowa Board of Regents.

According to Kelsey Gillen, director of academic quality and undergraduate education, the 10-year accreditation review allows Iowa State to demonstrate its quality around four broad criteria:

• Mission. The institution's mission is clear and articulated publicly; it guides the institution's operations.
• Integrity: Ethical and responsible conduct. In fulfilling its mission, the institution acts with integrity; its conduct is ethical and responsible.
• Teaching and learning for student success. The institution demonstrates responsibility for the quality of its educational programs, learning environments and support services, and it evaluates their effectiveness in fulfilling its mission.
• Sustainability: Institutional effectiveness, resources and planning. The institution's resources, structures, policies, procedures and planning enable it to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its educational programs and respond to future challenges and opportunities.

Iowa State's accreditation efforts, coordinated through the office of the senior vice president and provost, are led by Gillen and Paul Hengesteg, scholarship, assessment and programs coordinator in the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. As noted previously in Inside Iowa State, the two-year effort has involved more than 50 people, 300 pieces of evidence, 7,000 course syllabi and a 35,000 word assurance argument.

The 10-year accreditation cycle also includes a quality initiative that demonstrates the university's commitment to continuous improvement, consistent with its mission and institutional strengths. In the previous cycle, Iowa State participated in the ACE Learner Success Lab (2020-22) and created the Student Success and Retention Working Group; portions of this initiative were supported through strategic plan "jump start" funding and have contributed to record retention and graduation rates.

Open forums scheduled as part of visit

Students, faculty and staff will have three opportunities to meet with the review team and share how their work supports Iowa State's mission and supports one of the four accreditation criteria. The forums are an opportunity for the review team to ask questions of the campus community and the campus community to share their experiences working or studying on campus. 

All forums are in the Memorial Union. Dates, times and selected criteria are:

• Open forum 1: Mission and Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct, March 30 (10:15-11:15 a.m., Campanile Room), RSVP for open forum 1
• Open forum 2: Teaching and Learning for Student Success, March 30 (1-2 p.m., Campanile Room), RSVP for open forum 2
• Open forum 3: Sustainability: Institutional Effectiveness, Resources and Planning, March 31 (9:30-10:30 a.m., Room 2630), RSVP for open forum 3

More information on Iowa State's HLC accreditation is on the provost's office website. General information on HLC accreditation is available through the commission website.