Tag Archives: accreditation

Strategic Updates Archive

HLC visit nears, your participation is important

Drake will host representatives from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 23 and 24. The five-member team will conduct focused interviews, meetings, and open forums to learn more about our mission, operations, and aspirations, as we make our case for ongoing institution-wide accreditation. This visit gives the HLC team a chance to ask questions, hear input, and generally follow up on information we shared with them in a dossier filed with the commission in early September.

Please keep an eye out for invitations to attend meetings and forums this week. A complete list of forums and meetings can be found on the Conversations website.  Also visit the website to learn more about the accreditation process and to view Drake’s 108-page self-study.

—Craig Owens, Professor of English/Accreditation Committee Chair

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Town hall meeting on HLC accreditation and social event

Faculty and staff are invited to attend a town hall meeting on Drake’s institutional accreditation review by the Higher Learning Commission on Thursday, Sept. 14, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. in the Shivers Hospitality Suite. Kevin Saunders and Craig Owens will present a brief but compelling summary of our case for reaccreditation and an overview of our continuing preparations. A short Q&A will follow the presentation.

During the social hour immediately following the Q&A, guests can enjoy a beer, glass of wine, or non-alcoholic alternative, and reconnect with one another as we embark together on the beginning of the academic year. Worried about running out of things to talk about during the Social? We’ve got you covered. An exciting array of posters will bring the accreditation process to life and celebrate our many collective achievements since our last HLC review, nearly 10 years ago.

In addition to complimentary beverages, there will be snacks and popcorn. Parking is available nearby.

— Drinda Williams, Provost’s Office

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

From the President: Higher Learning Commission visit in October

We are now in the home stretch of our preparations for our comprehensive reaccreditation review by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). For more than three years, many on campus have been working hard to craft a compelling and wide-ranging dossier of materials that shows Drake University at its best. As we near the October site visit by the HLC’s team of peer-reviewers, I am writing to ask for your continued support.

Please save the dates of Monday through noon Tuesday, October 23–24, 2017, as the site visit team will expect to meet with a number of campus community members, including students, faculty, staff, academic and administrative leadership, and trustees.

We will not know with certainty with whom the team will want to meet until early to mid-October. As we receive their requests for meetings, Kevin Saunders will be in touch to request invitees’ attendance. I ask that you make yourself as available to the visiting reviewers as possible, that you refrain from scheduling meetings, events, or other obligations during that period, and that you keep an eye out for requests to attend interviews and meetings with the visiting team.

Please also be aware that the HLC reviewers’ needs for meeting space will be high priorities. So, you may find that on-campus venues commonly available for general use will be held in reserve during the dates of the site visit.

As we get closer to the visit, you will receive updates and invitations to learn more about our reaccreditation efforts. I trust you will find the case we present to the HLC enlightening and uplifting. In the meantime, thanks for the hard work and care from those already involved in preparations for the review and, in advance, for your flexibility and willingness to take part in the visit, should you be asked to do so.

— Marty Martin, President

Strategic Updates Archive

From the President

In my message to campus a few weeks ago, I introduced our new continuous improvement site, www.drake.edu/conversations. We have already received thoughtful comments and questions through the site, and I encourage everyone to provide feedback throughout the process of transitioning to a continuous improvement model at Drake.

We have recently made a few additions to the site. A new page has been added about our ongoing Higher Learning Commission re-accreditation efforts. The idea of continuous improvement is an integral part of the HLC’s approach to accreditation, as it enables universities to more accurately measure the success of their efforts and be responsive to the needs of an evolving student body. I encourage you to view Craig Owens and Kevin Saunders’ video message on this topic. By adding the re-accreditation information to our continuous improvement site, we are better aligning ongoing efforts, streamlining communication channels, and, hopefully, increasing campus-wide engagement with the process. As we move forward with re-accreditation, you will be able to find progress updates on the site.

We have also added several campus units’ balanced scorecards to the Conversations site: College of Business and Public Administration, Office of University Communications, Office of Admission, and Office of Alumni Relations and Development. These units volunteered to create continuous improvement plans for their operations. I encourage you to take a look at these plans as tangible examples of the balanced scorecard, as well as to see how campus colleagues are embracing this change and working toward creating a stronger University for the future. One thing to remember—these plans will change. Like the University’s continuous improvement plan, with feedback and progress these unit scorecards will evolve over time.

Sincerely,

Marty

Strategic Updates Archive

From President Martin: Sept. 10

Good morning,

Since the last time Drake’s accreditation was renewed through the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) a good deal has changed—both at Drake and with accreditation standards. One of the more significant changes at Drake is the effort to start the process of accreditation much earlier. Nearly two years ago, members of the Drake community began addressing the new accreditation standards by analyzing the alignment of the University’s academic activities, operations, and priorities with these criteria.

Thanks to the hard work of many, led by Craig Owens and Kevin Saunders, several opportunities for improvement have been identified as we move toward reaccreditation by the HLC in 2017–2018. You can learn more about these priorities and the steps being taken to address them in the forthcoming BlueLine newsletter. Thanks to the proactive approach we have taken to accreditation, Drake is well positioned to meet, if not exceed, HLC criteria.

In conjunction with the reaccreditation effort, I, along with the President’s Council and the Dean’s Council, am striving to create a planning culture that supports continuous improvement at Drake. While this culture shift goes hand-in-hand with accreditation, it is not simply a project that is undertaken every 5 or 10 years—it is a constant, flexible improvement framework driven by our desire to provide the very best education to our students and fulfill our mission promise. This continuous improvement approach is a fusion of traditional strategic planning and accreditation efforts, and offers an innovative strategy to drive the University forward.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn more about accreditation and continuous improvement initiatives at Drake as we continue through the fall term. Every member of the campus community has a role to play in these efforts. By being more flexible and responsive, we will not just survive this time of tumult in higher education—we will thrive.

Best regards,

Marty