Commission Seeks Comments on Mid-South Community College

A consultant-evaluator team from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools will visit Mid-South Community College in October, and third-party comments are being solicited as part of the process.

Students, alumni, community members, and other constituent groups are encouraged to contact the Commission regarding the programs and services provided by the College. Comments must address substantive matters related to the quality of the institution or its academic programs.

All comments must be written and signed and should be received by the HLC by Sept. 21, 2013.

Local/regional input may be submitted as follows: Public Comment on Mid-South Community College, The Higher Learning Commission, 230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500, Chicago, IL 60604-1411. The Commission also accepts comments at its website at www.ncahlc.org. The HLC is one of six accrediting agencies in the U.S. that provides institutional accreditation on a regional basis.

Institutional accreditation is a voluntary process which evaluates an entire institution and accredits it as a whole. The Commission, which accredits approximately 1,300 institutions of higher education in a 19-state region, is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. The North Central Association was established in 1895.

MSCC has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of The North Central Association since 1999 and is nearing the end of a 10-year cycle.

“The Higher Learning Commission’s tenets have always been a guiding path for this institution,” said MSCC President Dr. Glen Fenter. “We have understood since the establishment of the College that the Commission’s guidelines would take us where we needed to be. The evaluation process is clinical and critical, and it is something that is a very real judge of who you are as an institution and what you’ve been able to accomplish.”

Accreditation criteria include Mission; Ethical and Responsible Conduct; Teaching and Learning-Quality, Resources, and Support; Teaching and Learning-Evaluation and Improvement; and Resources, Planning, and Institutional Effectiveness.

Over the past two years, Mid-South has been engaged in a process of self-study which includes addressing the Commission's requirements and criteria for accreditation. An evaluation team of peer reviewers from New River Community and Technical College (West Virginia), Manhattan Area Technical College (Kansas), GateWay Community College (Arizona), Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (Ohio), and Estrella Mountain Community College (Arizona) will visit the institution October 21-23, 2013.

When the informational effort concludes, the team will make a recommendation to the Commission about MSCC’s continuing accreditation. Following a review process, the Commission itself will take the final action.

For more information about the accreditation process at MSCC, call (870) 733-6722.