Middle States Reports and Actions

ACCC engaged in its ten-year accreditation review in March of 2006.  The process of preparing for that visit began in earnest. On September 28, 2005, Dr. Robert Schneider, Vice President of the MSCHE, made a preliminary visit to our campus.  Soon after, we submitted the final draft of our Self-Study Design to Dr. Schneider.  This Design summarized the questions we expected our final report to answer as well as how we would organize the report.

The reaccreditation process can be arduous, but it can also be enlightening.  The self-study process gave us the opportunity to consider our programs and services and discover what and how we could improve. It helped us to ensure that we are delivering what we have promised our students in our Mission Statement. This, perhaps, is the main reason that the Middle States accreditation really does matter.

Prior to March of 2006, the ACCC community spent three semesters preparing the college's Self-Study report, Forging a Shared Vision: A Framework for Positive Transformation at ACCC. The goal of the Self Study report, as noted by MSCHE, is to provide an honest representation of the institution that avoids "institutional politics and personal agendas, that warrants and receives broad support among campus constituencies, and that demonstrates compliance with Commission Standards." The report was then reviewed by the Evaluation Team,, a team of professionals that visited ACCC from March 26-29 and, during that time, spoke to Board members, faculty, students, staff, and alumni.

The report by the Evaluation Team, chaired by Dr. Elaine Ryan, was received by ACCC on

4/26/06. ACCC, in turn, provided the Middle States Commission on Higher Education with a  formal institutional response to the report. On June 12, 2006, the MSCHE published on its Web site ACCC's Statement of Accreditation Status (SAS). In response to the SAS, ACCC immediately began development of a remediation plan that includes a comprehensive Monitoring Report. The Monitoring Report was filed with the Commission on August 27, 2007.

A second Special Team was appointed to visit ACCC in late October of 2007. That Special Team was charged with gathering information to supplement the written Monitoring Report with a focus on Standards 2 and 7. It was composed of two peer evaluators with expertise in planning/budgeting and institutional assessment. The special team was on campus for two days and submitted an agenda prior to its arrival.

The special team submitted its evaluation report to Atlantic Cape Community College in November. ACCC, in turn, reviewed the special team's report and accepted it. ACCC then submitted its Institutional Response (formal acceptance of the report) to Middle States.

In February 2008, the Committee on Follow Up Activities and Candidate Institutions reviewed the College’s Monitoring Report (and that of the visiting team) and submitted a recommendation to the Commission. The Commission acted in March to reaffirm ACCC's accreditation.

Next steps in the college's ongoing accreditation process include:

Reports