Brooke Kelly
Managing Editor
After three years of preparation, Jackson State University can consider itself successful in meeting accreditation standards and can look forward to full reaffirmation later this year after addressing several recommendations made by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Every 10 years colleges and universities are evaluated by SACS, and this year, April 11-13, several representatives from SACS came to JSU to examine how well the university is preparing students for the future and to look at its Quality Enhancement Plan, called GEAR-Global Education through Analytical Reasoning.
After the SACS visit, President Carolyn Meyers stated in an online letter: “The integrity of all of our academic programs, the faculty who teach our students and the staff who support the whole enterprise were found to be sound.”
Professor of Music Robert Blaine, is the QEP Director at Jackson State, and he also believes the SACS visit was successful.
“Our SACS site visit leader was very complementary,” said Blaine. The representative “said our students were some of the best in terms with students’ knowledge of the QEP and eloquence in speaking. We received very few recommendations, and we received many commendations,” said Blaine.
According to Blaine, after the university submits documentation regarding recommendations by the end of May, the reaccreditation process is pretty much over, and reaccreditation will be official in December at the SACS conference in Orlando, Fla.
After five years, the university will submit a QEP midterm review of what the QEP committee has found and how the program has progressed.
Yvonne Sanders, a senior social work major from Jackson, Miss., was one of the 16 students in the GEAR student focus group. She became part of the focus group after being told about a GEAR reading group started by Blaine.
In the reading group, students read books, watched movies and wrote reviews.
“After awhile, I started going to QEP meetings, sitting in and giving any input I could,” said Sanders. “It was a great opportunity to be a part of our reaccreditation. GEAR is making students aware of the world by teaching analytical reasoning and English. It’s complex, but it’s a great idea.”
Sanders added: “It brings the world to us. It allows us to see the world without actually studying abroad,” she continued.
In total, the university received seven recommendations considered by both Meyers and Blaine to be minor.
“I have seen schools with 20-30 recommendations,” said Blaine.
Of the recommendations, three are for the QEP while four are for the university meeting SACS compliance certification.
The three recommendations for the QEP are to: Include in-kind support from university in budget; Narrow the assessment of the QEP down to only student learning outcomes; and Provide information on the means of persons responsible for various parts of QEP’s timeline.
While Blaine is not responsible for the other four recommendations, he said they deal with issues of governance of the university such as bylaws- “things we have already done,” said Blaine. The bylaws have to be approved by the Institute of Higher Learning before being considered complete, and SACS would like to see them complete.
