Dear Colleagues, 

All areas of the College are engaging in Area Reviews (100 reviews to be exact-see Multi-Year Schedule tab!) to review data, do planning such as creating goals, and identify resource needs. The reviews help us understand how effective our own area is and how we can improve.  Area administrators are accountable for completing the reviews by the deadline. 

Earlier deadline: April 24, 2023 

The review process will inform how we allocate resources, which means if your area wants to request additional resources (i.e. funding-including up to $100,000 in Innovation Grants, staffing, or equipment requests beyond the tenure-track positions and instructional equipment that already have been approved in instructional areas), then your area will need to complete a review by the earlier deadline of April 24, 2023, to allow for analysis that will inform the development of the 2023-24 budget. If your instructional or service area is not requesting additional resources, your Area Review is due by the last day of spring quarter on June 16, 2023 and all those areas will be given time to work on those reviews during Day of Learning on May 5^th.  

Innovation Grant Requests 

Just to be clear: Innovation Grant funding is available up to $100,000 and the process to apply has been integrated into the Area Review process. That means that the way you apply for an Innovation Grant is to fill out your Area Review by April 24, 2023.  

Why We Are Doing Area Reviews 

This is work that we need to do to be a healthy college, but also because it is required by the Northwest Commission on College and Universities (NWCCU) accreditation standards. Based on the October 2022 accreditation site visit (the most recent visit/accreditation evaluation), the College was found still to be out-of-compliance with accreditation standards in two areas: 

Planning and Use of Data: Provide evidence of a systematic method for collecting, storing, accessing, using and sharing data for the purposes of on-going and systematic evaluation, planning, resource allocation and informing decision-making toward improving institutional effectiveness and achieving mission fulfillment (2020 Standard(s) 1.B.1; 1.B.2). 
 

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes: Engage in a systematic assessment process for all college programs, including transfer degree programs, through the use of programmatic and institutional outcomes to gather data that will be used for academic learning support, program planning, and resource allocation (Standards 1.C.5, 1.C.6, 1.C.7). 
 

We must show significant progress toward compliance by October 5-6, 2023, our next accreditation site visit. Our accreditation report is due August 24, 2023 which means that we have less than 6 months to enact significant work. 

Continuous Improvement 

This Area Review form and process is a work in process, so provide feedback here to help inform continuous improvements! 

Previous messages around Area Reviews and Accreditation can be found on DAAG here.  

Sincerely, cc

Ann Garnsey-Harter, AVP-PIE