LSC earns reaccreditation

Bombarded by recent talks of faculty and staff cuts and talks of future budget deficits, Lyndon State College received the good news that the NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) reaccreditation team will not be returning to campus for ten years. 

"We have essentially passed our reaccreditation visit with many flying colors," said President Carol Moore at the Student Government Association meeting Wednesday night. "As is always the case with NEASC, there are some issues we need to deal with in the future."

Lyndon will be required to put together an updated report to submit to NEASC in three years.

Overall the report put together by the NEASC team that visited Lyndon back in October was fairly positive.

"When this evaluation team visited the campus, we were impressed by how strongly the mission statement itself has been embraced by the campus community and how remarkably student-centered the campus is," the report opens. "Lyndon has also remained true to its original mission by continuing to emphasize professional education, as 83 percent of current LSC students are matriculated into the college's professional degree programs."

"It used to be you were accredited for ten years," said Moore, but she went on to say that is no longer the case. "It's an ongoing process now," she said.

Now a college needs to prove that it is meeting the 11 NEASC standards almost every year in order to keep accreditation, Moore said. 

"We have already started working on things for the three year report," said Moore. "I have no concerns about that."

Moore also said she was "100 percent confident" at the time of the report that Lyndon would receive the ten-year accreditation; she was just unsure if it would have to file a report in two or three years.

"Much work remains to be done, despite recent progress," the report reads.

They want us to focus on the recruitment of new students, retention of current students and graduation rates in each of our programs," Moore told the SGA.

Moore said that things the college is working on to include in the three-year report include a realignment of the curriculum and the implementation of the new general education requirements.

"The General Education curriculum does not yet have a systematic and effective approach to assess student learning," the report reads.

One concern NEASC does have about Lyndon is the increase of part-time faculty and reduction of full-time. However, administration has offered seven full-time faculty retirement incentives and said there will be faculty cuts to avoid future deficit problems.

According to the report, "The college is well aware of this concern and has engaged in a concerted effort to recruit new and replacement faculty, while reducing the number of part-time faculty."

NEASC was also impressed by the planning strategies LSC has created.

"The team who visited commended Lyndon for a decade-long history of planning and evaluation and for the development of four strategic plans, and the implementation of three. The fourth one is currently in the works," said Moore.

While there were things to improve on, many parts of Lyndon were highlighted as positive in the report.

"They commend Lyndon State College for the clarity of its mission. That is helping every student to be successful. They also commended the college for the faculty and staff and administration on the college being consistently exemplifying, to use their words, a student-centered approach to higher education. They also commended us on the experiential learning that is built into all of the programs," Moore said during the meeting. "

The report also notes that Lyndon has increased its aid that is available to students, and is continuing to find ways to help students.

The 11 standards

Mission and Purpose

Planning and evaluation

Organization and Governance

The Academic Program

Faculty

Students

Library and Other Information Resources

Physical and Technological Resources

Financial Resources

Public Disclosure

Integrity