All members of Northern Illinois University’s campus community are invited to participate in NIU’s 2014 Higher Learning Commission accreditation process.
Students, staff and faculty are needed to serve on committees to help create a thorough review of the university and its goals.
Anyone interested in volunteering to serve on a committee should respond via email at HLC2014@niu.edu by Friday, May 4. Each respondent should indicate the committee of interest in serving.
Committees will remain established through Fall 2013.
The committees are organized around the following five accreditation criteria:
- Mission: The institution’s mission is clear and articulated publicly; it guides the institution’s operations.
- Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct: The institution acts with integrity; its conduct is ethical and responsible.
- Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support: The institution provides high quality education, wherever and however its offerings are delivered.
- Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Improvement: The institution demonstrates responsibility for the quality of its educational programs, learning environments, and support services, and it evaluates their effectiveness for student learning through processes designed to promote continuous improvement.
- Resources, Planning, and Institutional Effectiveness: The institution’s resources, structures, and processes are sufficient to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its educational offerings, and respond to future challenges and opportunities. The institution plans for the future.
Doris Macdonald
“Accreditation by the HLC is essential in externally validating how we accomplish our mission,” says HLC steering committee chair Doris Macdonald, associate professor in the Department of English. “In addition, the process of self-study is a valuable component in our understanding of what we do, and what we can do, as an institution.”
The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association is one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States, responsible for accrediting more than 1,300 higher learning institutions. The HLC focuses on the core values of quality, integrity, innovation, diversity, inclusiveness, service, collaboration and learning.
Accreditation provides assurance to the public – in particular to prospective students – that an institution meets clearly stated requirements and criteria and will continue to meet them.
For more information, visit the accreditation self-study website at www.niu.edu/hlc or email Macdonald at HLC2014@niu.edu.
