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SACS Then and Now

SACS Then and Now
Then	Now
The Criteria for Accreditation	The Principles of Accreditation
Compliance with 475-plus detailed and prescriptive "must" statements	Compliance with 73 "core" and "comprehensive" statements
Completition of an extensive evaluative self-study report	Submission of a concise compliance certification report (no self-study)
A self-study steering committee and a dozen or more self-study committees	A small leadership team overseeing compliance certification reporting
Coordination by the institution's self-study director every 10 years	Continuous annual coordination by the institution's accreditation liaison
Faculty-dominated self-study evaluations and report preparation	Administrator-dominated compliance certification with a faculty-dominated Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
An on-site peer review committee's validation of institutional compliance with the Criteria	An off-site peer review committee's validation of institutional compliance with the Principles
An on-site committee that reviews voluminous hard copy documentation (a physical documents room)	An off-site committee that accesses an electronic archive of focused documentation and interactive reference data (a virtual documents room)
An on-site peer committee's validation of institutional compliance that is independent of other institutions' reviews	The simultaneous validation of compliance for a half-dozen institutions by the same off-site peer review committee
Self-study orientations, preparations and peer reviews that are conducted on a schedule that is unique to each institution	Compliance orientations, preparations and peer reviews that are conducted on a common schedule for Track A institutions and separately for Track B institutions each year
Campus-wide involvement that focuses on institutional compliance with "must" statements	Campus-wide involvement that focuses on Quality Enhancement Planning (QEP) for improved student learning
An on-site peer review that involves a large visiting committee comprised of many different specialists examining all operations	An on-site peer review that involves a small visiting committee comprised of specialists focused primarily on the QEP
A project in which IT personnel play minor roles in self-study preparation and technical support for the on-site visit	A project in which IT personnel play major mission-critical roles in designing and activating electronic information centers needed for off-site access and validation of compliance
Adapted from information prepared by Ed Rugg, Kennesaw State University, first posted on the KSU Web site 5/20/03.