Audience
It is our pleasure to present the draft Middle States Self Study Report for your review. The self study report describes evidence-based examples of how SMCM meets the seven standards of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The cited evidence items are viewable to the campus community through this linked spreadsheet. The report is also expected to highlight key successes, opportunities and challenges of SMCM, during the last 3-5 years.
We welcome your feedback on factual inaccuracies, missing evidence or whether the statements do not seemingly align with the MSCHE criteria. Please do not worry about typos, formatting, slight wording changes or style issues; a thorough copy-editing process is planned. Please provide your feedback by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8 through this online form and/or by attending one of the in-person feedback sessions noted below:
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Wednesday, Dec. 4, 4 - 5 p.m., Glendening Annex
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Thursday, Dec. 5, 11:30 a.m. -12 p.m., Glendening Annex
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Friday, Dec. 6, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Cole Cinema
We appreciate any and all time that can be carved from busy schedules at this point of the semester to review the draft and offer feedback. We ask that you read/review the first and last chapters (Introduction and Conclusion), plus chapters or areas of the report that most directly link to your campus experience.
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Standard 1: Mission & Goals, including how we present and enact the SMCM mission in campus life, strategic planning efforts from design to implementation
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Standard 2: Ethics & Integrity, including freedoms, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, grievance policies, employment practices honesty & truthfulness of communications
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Standard 3: Design & Delivery of the Student Learning Experience, including the LEAD Curriculum, undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty qualifications and curriculum processes, matters relating to the faculty
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Standard 4: Support of the Student Learning Experience, including information pertaining to admissions, academic & professional support, student life
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Standard 5: Educational Effectiveness Assessment, including the systems and processes that support assessment of student learning within the SMCM curriculum, alignment of educational goals and the curriculum, use of assessment results
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Standard 6: Planning, Resources, and Institutional Improvement, including responsibility and decision-making, resource allocation, hiring, campus infrastructure and buildings, the budget, audits, administrative assessment
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Standard 7: Governance, Leadership, & Administration, including shared governance, the Board of Trustees, executive leadership
We want to thank the 8 work groups that worked hard to gather and analyze the evidence that allows SMCM to demonstrate how it has met the Middle States criteria. The creation of this report has been a collaborative effort with so many people on campus, for which we are grateful.
Sincerely,
The SMCM Self-Study Steering Committee
Katy Arnett, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Co-Chair
Anne Marie Brady, Assistant Vice President for Institutional Research and Planning, Co-Chair
Geoff Bowers, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Jeff Byrd, Special Assistant to the President & Emeritus Professor of Biology
Michael Dunn, Director of Professional Pathways
Barrett Emerick, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Joanne Goldwater, Associate Dean of Retention & Student Success
Mary Grube, Assistant Vice President of Finance
Bill Roberts, Professor of Anthropology
Sahar Shafqat, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Professor of Political Science