QEP

“Think It, Link It, Live It.”

Anyone who has set foot on Southeastern’s campus the past few months has likely seen that phrase on promotional materials for the ongoing Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP.

But what does the QEP— and the hundreds of hours of work put into it—really mean for the university?

The QEP is part of a process the university began three years ago to prepare for the upcoming site visit by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, commonly called SACS. The team of nine administrators and faculty members from other SACS schools similar to Southeastern will be on campus Feb 22-24.

The visit is the culmination of the university’s accreditation reaffirmation with SACS, which takes place every 10 years. The commission has already reviewed Southeastern’s compliance certification documents that were submitted in September, and the team’s visit will serve as a chance to review the university up close and also to speak to faculty, staff, and students.

Dr. Andrew Permenter, SEU’s dean of institutional research and retention, said the importance of maintaining SACS accreditation can’t be understated.

The commission is a regional accreditation organization, the ultimate seal of approval available to colleges in the United States. Colleges are held to standards by their peers through SACS, one of six regional accreditation agencies in the country, and it can take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to earn initial accreditation.

When Southeastern first applied for SACS accreditation in the 1980s , one of the standards it had to meet was an improved library, not only in its collections but also the facility.

Universities that are not regionally accredited cannot offer federal financial aid dollars to their students, and many courses from non-accredited schools will not transfer to a school that is regionally accredited. Southeastern’s SACS accreditation gives it needed credibility, so the stakes are always high when the process to reaffirm a school’s credentials begins.

Dr. Permenter, who has overseen Southeastern’s compliance and QEP documents, is confident the university is in a strong position.

One of the primary components of the SACS evaluation is a university’s finances, but the commission was so satisfied with Southeastern’s financial stability from its compliance report in the fall that it isn’t sending a finance evaluator with the on-site team. There also will not be a library evaluator making the trip.

“I was encouraged when I found out who was going to be on the team,” Dr. Permenter said. “It made me feel more confident that we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

A typical team making an on-campus visit for SACS has about 13 people, but there are only nine on the team visiting Southeastern.

Students, faculty, and staff won’t notice any disruption in their routines during the visit. The SACS team will have scheduled meetings with various groups from the university, and most if not all of those groups will know ahead of the visit if they have a meeting. Dr. Permenter and his team will also be arranging mock sessions for key groups to go over potential questions the SACS representatives could ask.

The team will also have multiple meetings with new President Dr. Kent Ingle, and Dr. Permenter said having a president in place at the time of the visit puts Southeastern on even more solid ground. But the visit and reaffirmation process were not scheduled because of the university’s presidential vacancy; the process was set to take place this year simply as part of the 10-year cycle SACS uses.

One substantial change from the QEP that students will notice in the fall is a revamped Christ, Culture, and the University first-year course program. The class will have a new curriculum, more small group sessions, and become more academically rigorous.

The university will also develop a more comprehensive assessment plan to determine if students are experiencing the desired outcomes from the course during subsequent years.

“We want to introduce first-year students to Southeastern University more extensively from the beginning of their college careers,” said Dr. Permenter.

The best things that faculty, staff, and students can do between now and the visit is familiarize themselves with the “Things to Know” and “FAQs” documents on MySEU and SFnet. Not only will those help explain the meaning of the visit, but they will also reinforce the direction that the university is heading.