MEMORANDUM DATE: May 16, 2018 TO: Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges - WASC FROM: Jamienne S Studley, President RE: Report from the WASC Senior College and University Commission Commission Actions: At its February 2018 meeting, the Commission took the following actions: GRANT CANDIDACY (4) CONTINUE CANDIDACY (1) GRANT INITIAL ACCREDITATION (3) REAFFIRM ACCREDITATION (8) CONTINUE ACCREDITATION, ISSUE A WARNING (1) FOLLOWING A SPECIAL VISIT- CONTINUE WITH PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED REAFFIRMATION REVIEW (1) SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE APPROVALS (10) Commission Election Seven new Commissioners were elected to a three-year term beginning July 1: Lande Ajose, Public Member, Executive Director, California Competes Thomas Fleming, Senior VP/CFO, Loyola Marymount University Greg Franklin, Superintendent, Accrediting Commission for Schools WASC Sharon B Hamill, Professor, Psychology, CSU San Marcos Joseph Hoey, Associate Provost/ALO National University Jennifer Summit, Interim Provost and VP, San Francisco State University Tracy Poon Tambascia, Professor, Clinical Education, University of Southern California Three sitting Commissioners were elected to a second three-year term: Fernando Leon-Garcia, President, CETYS University Kay Llovio, Associate Provost, William Jessup University Tomoko Takahashi, Vice President IR, Graduate School Dean, Soka University of America Two new Commissioners were appointed to replace resigning Commissioners: Joseph Castro, President, CSU, Fresno Leanne Neilson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, California Lutheran University 985 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100 Alameda, CA 94501 Phone: (510) 748-9001 efax: (510) 748-1477 wascsr@wascsenior.org New WSCUC President Jamienne S Studley, most recently Deputy and Acting Undersecretary of the U.S Department of Education, joined WSCUC as President in January 2018 Ms Studley has served as President of Skidmore College, Associate Dean of Yale Law School, and CEO of Public Advocates, Inc WSCUC Granted Reaffirmation WSCUC was recently granted reaffirmation for five years by the Senior Department Official of the Office of Postsecondary Education following recommendations by NACIQI and the Education Department’s accreditation staff Thematic Pathway for Reaffirmation (TPR) After an extensive development and review process, the Commission approved the Thematic Pathway for Reaffirmation (TPR), a new process for reaffirmation of accreditation This new pathway is as rigorous as the traditional institutional review process, but the timeline is streamlined and the institution may focus on self-selected themes while demonstrating compliance with the standards 2018 Academic Resource Conference (ARC) Held in Burlingame The 2018 ARC took place April 25 – 27, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency in Burlingame The conference explored the theme FUTURE PERFECT and included plenary addresses from Ted Mitchell, President of the American Council on Education who spoke on Hope and Higher Education; Lynn Pasquerella, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities, who discussed Higher Education’s Public Purpose: Defending Colleges and Universities as Forces for Good; and an inaugural address to the region from WSCUC President Jamienne S Studley, who called attention to Harnessing Accreditation’s Superpowers There was also a panel discussion about Fostering Change in Postsecondary Education moderated by Doug Lederman, Co-Editor and Co-Founder, Inside Higher Education and featuring Max Espinoza of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; John Kline, Former United States Representative, Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District; Ajita Talwalker Menon, Former Special Assistant to the President for Higher Education Policy in the Obama Administration; and George Miller, Former United States Representative, California’s 11th Congressional District ACCJC provided sponsorship for the conference, which hosted 990 attendees over days 9th Cohort Assessment Leadership Academy The WSCUC Assessment Leadership Academy (ALA) prepares postsecondary professionals to provide leadership in a wide range of activities related to assessment of student learning The 9th cohort will begin June 4, 2018 Third Convening of Community of Practice for Advancing Learning Outcomes The WSCUC Community of Practice includes 21 institutions from the region Supported by a grant from the Lumina Foundation, participants are working to provide better publicly available information on student learning outcomes A third convening was held on April 24 in conjunction with the ARC