Campus Review Sought

Campus Prepares Report as Next Step to Reaccreditation

November 10, 2009

As the campus moves closer to the March 2010 campus visit by an accrediting team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, faculty, staff and students are invited to review and provide feedback on the university's draft capacity and preparatory review report, “Charting Our Campus Future." (PDF)

Deadline for comments on the draft report, which can be sent to WASC@fullerton.edu, is Dec. 1.

“The WASC accreditation is an opportunity for the university to refine, redefine and strategically align our priorities to meet current and future needs of our students and community,” said Dorota Huizinga, associate vice president of graduate studies and research, and accreditation liaison officer. “The current budget crisis is a clear indication that we cannot continue to conduct business as usual.

“I hope the campus community, particularly faculty and students will provide us with the feedback necessary to not only inform the WASC process but also move us forward.”

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges is the accrediting commission for senior colleges and universities and is responsible for the evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of colleges and universities offering undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degrees in California, Hawaii, Guam and the Pacific Basin. Cal State Fullerton was first accredited by WASC in 1961 and most recently reaccredited in 2000.

The university is currently in the midst of the traditional reaccreditation cycle.

As part of the reaccreditation effort, Cal State Fullerton has been working on a three-stage, self-review process, said task force member Chris Renne, director of the Center for Careers in Teaching and a professor of elementary and bilingual education. An institutional proposal was completed in fall 2007, the capacity and preparatory review will take place next spring, and an educational effectiveness review visit is planned for fall 2011.

Approximately 150 campus members — faculty, staff, administrators and students — are involved, serving on various task force committees ranging from indicators of quality, planning process and database/infrastructure student learning, to student engagement and student/faculty collaboration.

“In fall 2007, the WASC Commission accepted our institutional proposal, which then allowed us to move forward n collecting data for this subsequent report,” said Renne. “Through our research reported in the proposal, our WASC Steering Committee identified three themes that we then used for subsequent study: campuswide planning, student learning and its assessment, and promoting student engagement and success.”

“These themes, the questions that were raised regarding this information, and the data that we collected and considered are all included in our draft capacity and preparatory review report,” said task force member Edward Sullivan, acting assistant vice president, institutional research and analytical studies. “It is vitally important that we provide every opportunity for the campus community to participate and contribute to this process. Accreditation is important to everyone — students, faculty, staff, alumni, future Titans and community members — with an interest in Cal State Fullerton. It allows us all an opportunity to look at where we have been and envision and develop a plan for what we will become over the next decades.”

For additional information, go to http://www.fullerton.edu/wasc.