Campus community participates in successful accreditation virtual site visit
After months of planning and preparation, Citrus College hosted representatives from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) for a virtual focused site visit on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13.
An important step in the accreditation cycle, the two-day visit included three Zoom events that were open to members of the campus community. The visiting team also conducted interviews with full committees, as well as the leads and co-leads of specific accreditation standards. The goal of the interviews was to gather more information regarding program review and student learning outcomes.
"There were a couple of areas where we needed to understand more, and we thought we would benefit from asking questions," said Sunita "Sunny" Cooke, Ph.D., chair of the ACCJC visiting team. "With the ISER [Institutional Self-Evaluation Report] being so concise and these processes being so complex, we felt it would be very beneficial for us to be in conversation with [key people on campus] to help us understand some of those more complex processes. So, those became the two areas of our core inquiries."
One highlight of the visit was the campus open forum, which provided members of the Citrus College community with the opportunity to share their perspective with the ACCJC visiting team. The college's collaborative spirit, welcoming environment and commitment to students were highlighted by the faculty, staff and community members who contributed to the conversation.
"The team was very impressed with the involvement of folks across the college in the planning and work of the college, as well as in the approach to accreditation. It was clear that this was a very inclusive process, and that this is a very inclusive and collaborative campus," Dr. Cooke said.
Citrus College is one of three institutions that are part of a pilot program for the new formative/summative method of accreditation, a fact the visiting team emphasized.
"You all boldly went where others had not yet gone and we really appreciated that," Dr. Cooke noted. "Thanks to all those that were involved in writing and editing the ISER and shepherding this process, as well as preparing for the focused site visit."
The next stage of the process is for the visiting team to write the draft team report, followed by Citrus College's review of the draft and correction of factual errors. After the final team report is submitted to the ACCJC, they will review it and take action on the college's accreditation status at their January 2022 meeting.
"The entire campus community should be commended for its amazing efforts and solid contributions to our ACCJC virtual focused site visit," said Dr. Joumana McGowan, vice president of academic affairs. "We deeply appreciate everybody's willingness to participate, collaborate and help showcase all the wonderful work that has been, and continues to be done, at Citrus College."
This article originally appeared in the November 2021 edition of the Citrus View.