Sprinkled throughout some earlier posts are my comments on higher education as a public good -- specifically, the idea that our whole community and our whole society benefit from the work that we do here at Clinton. But what evidence is there that this college is accomplishing its mission "to provide educational opportunities that enrich minds, strengthen the economy and improve the quality of life in our region?" As it turns out, there is a great deal of evidence, and with the end of September fast approaching, now is a good time to highlight some of it.
By the end of next week, I expect that our annual report to the community will be published and ready for distribution. This is a document that we produce shortly after the start of each academic year to demonstrate through examples how Clinton Community College contributed to the public good during the previous academic year. Last year's report was titled Engaging Community. This year's report is titled Building Community. It is chock full of examples that demonstrate our institutional effectiveness, in other words how well we are accomplishing our mission.
We also are putting the final touches on this year's Institutional Effectiveness Report, which is not as glossy and colorful as our annual report. The Institutional Effectiveness Report is heavy with data, statistics and analysis. It is a tool that helps the College to monitor its progress toward its institutional goals and to point out where we are succeeding and where we are not. To the casual observer, it's a thick and dry document, but to us insiders, it's a wealth of information that helps us set a course for the future. Highlights of the Institutional Effectiveness Report -- without all the dry details -- are included in the annual report to the community that I described in the previous paragraph.
The College is also evaluated by outside observers. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is one of six regional accrediting bodies throughout the United States that provides an external evaluation of the effectiveness of colleges and universities. In the tradition of peer review, Middle States is made up of member institutions from several states and U.S territories. Middle States has developed a set of 14 standards called Characteristics of Excellence, against which peers from other states gauge the overall operation of a college or university. These standards include items on educational programs, governance and leadership, the assessment of student learning outcomes, adequacy of resources, and the assessment of institutional effectiveness.
Once every ten years, Clinton Community College comes up for reaccreditation. To prepare for reaccreditation next year, the college community has just completed a year-long self-study of how we are complying with the Characteristics of Excellence. On October 3, we will receive a visit from Dr. Thomas Isekenegbe, President of Cumberland County College in New Jersey. Dr. Isekenegbe is the chair of an external evaluation team that will review our self-study report this winter and visit the College for several days at the end of February to evaluate our College against the accreditation standards. The external evaluation team will provide a report on our College and make a recommendation to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education regarding our request for reaccreditation.
The end result of the process is twofold. First and foremost, we at Clinton Community College will become an even better institution by examining ourselves in relation to the Characteristics of Excellence and making improvements as indicated. Second, we will account for ourselves to our students, our community and the institutional sponsors who provide public support for this College.
A College is a complex organization with a lot of moving parts. By publishing an annual report to the community, by writing an Institutional Effectiveness Report, and by subjecting ourselves to external evaluation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, you can be sure that we're doing what is appropriate to accomplish our mission and achieve our vision in and for our community.
That's what I think. Please let me know what you think by e-mailing presidentsblog@clinton.edu.
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