Campus Prepares for Middle States Visit

A Middle States accreditation review team will visit the campus in March

The University is in the final stages of assembling the Middle States Self-Study Report and its supporting materials in preparation for the accreditation review team that will visit the campus in March.

David Soltz, president of Bloomsburg University, will lead the eight-member Middle States Visiting Team that will conduct the visit from March 20 to 23. Soltz made a preliminary visit to William Paterson last October, during which he provided feedback on the draft report. Members of the visiting team, who will hail from other institutions in the Middle States region, bring a variety of expertise related to the fourteen standards outlined in the organizations accreditation guide, Characteristics of Excellence (www.msche.org).

“The Self-Study Report is the result of the important contributions of forty-four members of the faculty and staff, who worked throughout 2009 and 2010 on four main groupings of standards,” says Stephen Hahn, associate provost and co-chair of the Self-Study Committee with Jane Zeff, director of institutional research and assessment. “Their contributions have been carefully reviewed and edited over the last six months. A final copy of the report will be posted on the University website when it is sent to the Middle States Commission and members of the visiting team at the end of January.”

The University earned initial accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 1958 as Paterson State College. Voluntary regional accreditation of institutions of higher education is required under the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) and for the disbursement of Title IV Federal Financial Aid. In addition to assuring compliance with the HEOA, Middle States accreditation “instills public confidence in institutional mission, goals, performance, and resources through its rigorous accreditation standards and their enforcement.”