Evaluation terms CU 'a truly special place'

By Jacquie Powers

The Middle States Association Commission on Higher Education (MSA/CHE) has reaffirmed Cornell's accreditation without condition, commending the university "for the quality of the self-study," President Hunter Rawlings announced last week.

The commission acted to reaffirm the accreditation at its meetings Nov. 14-15, three months earlier than had been expected. The Final Report of the Evaluation Team and the Decennial Reaccreditation Self-Study is available electronically at http://www.ipr.cornell.edu/Decennial_Menu.HTML. Verification of the accreditation status is available at http://www.ipr.cornell.edu/Accreditation/Status.

"We are pleased that the commission has acted on the evaluation team's recommendation," Rawlings said, in making the announcement Dec. 6. "The evaluation team called Cornell 'a truly special place,' and it is. We are grateful for the team's words of praise, as well as for their evaluation and advice on areas for improvement. Their report will continue to aid our efforts to become an even stronger university in the future."

The final report by the Middle States reaccreditation team, issued in late June, was glowing in its praise of Cornell. "Cornell is a very fine university, making truly distinctive contributions in all areas of its mission: educating responsible citizens, extending the frontiers of knowledge, and applying the results of these endeavors in service to the community, the state, the nation and the world," the report noted.

It also noted some opportunities for improvement. These included suggestions that the university provide a succinct statement of the mission, goals and objectives of the institution, as well as a more consistent and systematic means of assessing progress towards those goals.

A decennial self-study and reaccreditation evaluation is required of all higher education institutions under the jurisdiction of MSA/CHE. The Cornell on-site visit by the evaluation team, led by Nannerl O. Keohane, team chair and president of Duke University, took place last spring.

In preparation for the visit, Cornell began a self-study in September 1999. The university chose to go beyond the comprehensive review document required by Middle States, with an expanded, special emphasis section as part of the 127-plus-page self-study. The two special emphasis sections of the document focused on two of Cornell's strategic priorities: undergraduate education and distributed and distance learning.