short stories / By Heidi Walters

Update: CR’s accreditation

(April 10, 2008)  College of the Redwoods has had its share of mortifying news of late, including a leaky pool that’s been contributing unwelcome chlorine to the watershed, the subsequent closure of the pool (which left a swim team and many students high and dry) and a major scrap over the administration’s decision to replace some redwood-clad buildings with new buildings.

But one ray of hope at the college — amid the many, no doubt, that don ft get any press — is the steady progress the college has made toward satisfying those sticklers from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges,Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Since last June, the college has been on probation status with the accreditation commission. That was a descent from the “warning” status placed on the institution after its accreditation team first visited the campus in October 2005. But the college has been slogging away at the recommendations the commission made, and after another visit last Friday by the accreditation team the outlook looked hopeful, said Kerry Mayer and John Johnston, faculty members involved in steering CR toward meeting its accreditation status, in a phone interview on Tuesday.

“I think it would be impossible to not be impressed with the progress we have made,” Johnston said. Mayer added that she heard favorable, though unofficial, remarks afterward.

The team spent all day Friday perusing “mountains of evidence” the college presented to it and interviewing staff and faculty. The team fs report from this visit, containing notification of the college fs accreditation status, won ft come out until late June or the first of July.

Mayer and Johnston emphasized that the commission fs gripes have had nothing to do, actually, with the quality of instruction. “They had questions about the management of the institution,” said Johnston.

Mayer also wanted to make clear that at no time has the college lost its accreditation. “Some people in the community still seem to be confused about the status of our accreditation,” she said. “We remain fully accredited.”

Among its recommendations, the commission wanted the college to develop a system to regularly evaluate each of its programs, from student services to instruction to counseling and more, and use the reviews to assist the administration in its yearly planning. It also wanted the college to develop a long-range educational plan, a master facilities plan, an information technology plan, and a long-range financial planning process to keep the administration abreast of changes, such as in enrollment numbers, that could affect the budget. Most of all, the commission wanted the college to develop a system for gathering data so that administrative decisions would be data-informed.

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