Using Accreditation to Promote Diversity

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Using Accreditation to Promote Diversity

• Presented October 20, 2006
• AAC U Conference on Inclusive Excellence
• Ralph A. Wolff, President and Executive Director
• Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and
  Universities
• Western Association of Schools Colleges

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What Are Our Core Attitudes AboutDiversity?Ac
creditation?
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Where is Your Institution?

• Burden or Opportunity?
• On a scale of 1- 4, where is your institution?
• 1 State of denial
• 2 Willing only to deal with conflicts as they
  arise
• 3 Some data but little engagement
• 4 Initiates dialogue and generates data out of
  deep commitment to serve all with excellence

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The Biggest Obstacle to Achieving Diversity Is
The Belief It Already ExistsJohn Slaughter,
PresidentOccidental College
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Institutional Context

• Proposition 209/legislation/court cases in
  California, Texas, Washington, Michigan
• Frequent lawsuits challenging diversity, speech
  codes, codes of conduct, etc.
• Horowitz amendment
• Surveys portraying how liberal professors are
• Unwillingness to declare ethnic status

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National Policy Context

• Leaky pipeline who gets in
• Graduation rates who gets out
• What happens when they are in college? Are
  students learning anything?
• NAAL survey
• Survey of college seniors
• PISA studies

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Accreditation Reform

• Revised standards in all regions
• Period of major reform
• Openness to institutional innovation
• Ability to use accreditation process to focus on
  key institutional issues
• Institutional themes get sustained attention

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Key Areas of Reform

• Focus on learning outcomes
• New self-evaluation and visit models
• Emphasis on a culture of evidence and
  organizational learning
• Shift to a value adding process
• Accreditation as an agent of change

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Accreditation Standards on Diversity HLC/NCA

• In its mission documents, the organization
  recognizes the diversity of its learners, other
  constituencies, and the greater
• society it serves.
• ? In its mission documents, the organization
  addresses diversity within the community values
  and common purposes it considers fundamental to
  its mission.
• ? The mission documents present the
  organizations function in a multicultural
  society.
• ? The mission documents affirm the organizations
  commitment to honor the dignity and worth of
  individuals.
• ? The organizations required codes of belief or
  expected behavior are congruent with its mission.
• ? The mission documents provide a basis for the
  organizations basic strategies to address
  diversity.

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HLC/NCA

• Core Component - 4c The organization assesses the
  usefulness of its curricula to students who will
  live and work in a global, diverse, and
  technological society.
• Examples of Evidence
• ? Regular academic program reviews include
  attention to currency and relevance of courses
  and programs.
• ? In keeping with its mission, learning goals and
  outcomes include skills and professional
  competence essential to a diverse workforce.
• ? Learning outcomes document that graduates have
  gained the skills and knowledge they need to
  function in diverse, local, national, and global
  societies.

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MSA - CHE

• Consistent with the institutions mission,
  administration selection processes should give
  appropriate consideration to diversity in areas
  such as age, race, ethnicity, and gender. The
  administrative staff should work effectively as a
  team and work cooperatively with other
  constituencies of the institution.
• An institution demonstrates integrity through the
  manner in which it specifies its goals, selects
  and retains its faculty, admits students,
  establishes curricula, determines programs of
  research, pursues its fields of service,
  demonstrates sensitivity to equity and diversity
  issues, allocates its resources, serves the
  public interest, and provides for the success of
  its students.

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MSA (cont.)

• Faculty selection processes should give
  appropriate consideration to the value of faculty
  diversity, consistent with institutional mission,
  in areas such as age, race, ethnicity, and
  gender.
• An institution demonstrates integrity through the
  manner in which it specifies its goals, selects
  and retains its faculty, admits students,
  establishes curricula, determines programs of
  research, pursues its fields of service,
  demonstrates sensitivity to equity and diversity
  issues, allocates its resources, serves the
  public interest, and provides for the success of
  its students.

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New England (NEASC)

• The institution ensures equal employment
  opportunity consistent with legal requirements
  and any other dimensions of its own choosing
  compatible with its mission and purposes, it
  addresses its own goals for the achievement of
  diversity of race, gender, and ethnicity.
• In providing services, in accordance with its
  mission and purposes, the institution adheres to
  both the spirit and intent of equal opportunity
  and its own goals for diversity.

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WASC Senior College Commission

• Consistent with its purposes and character, the
  institution demonstrates an appropriate response
  to the increasing diversity in society through
  its policies, its educational and co-curricular
  programs, and its administrative and
  organizational practices.

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WASC Sr.

• Baccalaureate programs engage students in an
  integrated course of study of sufficient breadth
  and depth to prepare them for work, citizenship,
  and a fulfilling life. These programs also ensure
  the development of core learning abilities and
  competencies including, but not limited to,
  college-level written and oral communication
  college-level quantitative skills information
  literacy and the habit of critical analysis of
  data and argument. In addition, baccalaureate
  programs actively foster an understanding of
  diversity civic responsibility the ability to
  work with others and the capability to engage in
  lifelong learning.

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WASC Statement on Diversity

• Recognizes the comprehensive and multidimensional
  character of diversity issues
• Based on key assumption that diversity is an
  integral element of excellence
• Goes beyond representation to address respect for
  all students, campus climate, and educational
  programs

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Making Diversity a Key Focus of Accreditation

• Hooks
• Mission
• Retention/graduation rates
• Educational outcomes
• Assessment activities (including of diversity)
• Faculty recruitment and development
• Faculty and staff development
• Campus climate
• Program review
• Resource allocations
• Others?

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Examples

• California State University, East Bay
• San Jose State University
• UCLA
• University of California, Berkeley
• Chapman University
• Loyola Marymount University
• Mount Saint Marys College
• Biola University

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Key Considerations

• Need to disaggregate
• Test assumptions
• Create a comprehensive approach
• Go for long term over episodic
• Find key advocates
• Embed diversity issues within other topics

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We are the ones we have been waiting
for. Hopi elders
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For Additional Information or Comments

• Please contact Ralph Wolff rwolff_at_wascsenior.org