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In The News
July 9, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CSU Dominguez Hills' Accreditation
Reaffirmed Through 2018
(Carson, CA)— The
accreditation of California State University, Dominguez Hills
has been strongly
reaffirmed by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and
Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
(WASC), university president Dr. Mildred García informed
the campus earlier this week.
Tasked with evaluating the effectiveness and quality of public
and private schools in the western United States, WASC conferred
its highest accreditation appraisal to CSU Dominguez Hills by granting
a 10-year reaffirmation, with an interim report due in five years.
“WASC and their team of reviewers commended our campus community
and gave emphasis to their satisfaction with CSU Dominguez Hills,” García
said in an e-mail to faculty and staff. “We are taking the
necessary steps as a community to do whatever it takes to be the
university that is the role model for the country, a university
that prepares a diverse student body to live in a democratic society.”
In its letter reaffirming accreditation,
the WASC team commended CSU Dominguez Hills for the “extraordinary range of courses,
programs and other activities that reflect the institution’s
commitment to diversity,” adding that the visiting evaluation
team noted the university’s creative approach to diversity,
known as interactional diversity, was a “concept worthy of
greater exploration and dissemination in the academy.”
The university
also received commendation for the dedication of its faculty to
student learning and success, as demonstrated by
the innovative academic support programs and use of assessment
results to improve learning.
The WASC team also recognized the university’s
diligence to the WASC process and how that revealed a strong
commitment to
excellence in education.
“[T]hroughout the process, CSUDH demonstrated
integrity, commitment, and resolve to engage each of the three
stages of the review for
institutional improvement across the core functions of the organization,” the
evaluating team wrote in the Education Effectiveness Review (EER)
report.
The final EER report from WASC included only
a handful of recommendations, most of which, the report noted,
the campus
community was already
addressing, including continuing to work as a team to ensure academic
success and expand on improved student learning at all levels.
The WASC team advised the institution to continue its momentum.
The
news of reaffirmation ends a process that began nearly five years
ago. As early as 2003, a campus committee began laying the
groundwork for the reaccreditation by preparing the WASC-required
Institutional Proposal, a reflective self-study outlining what
the campus community viewed as the university’s core issues.
What followed in the ensuing years was a series of reports, and
visits from a WASC evaluation team to assess the educational effectiveness
of CSU Dominguez Hills based on the issues it defined for itself,
which were academic quality, campus change, diversity and civic
engagement.
The university’s WASC steering committee co-chair
Caron Mellblom says that by requiring self study, the WASC’s
accreditation process facilitated an in-depth examination by the
campus community
as to how CSU Dominguez Hills addresses or could better address
the changing face of learning and student needs in an urban university
in the 21st century.
“
For CSUDH the reaffirmation process served as a vehicle for the
campus to develop as a proactive outcomes-based learning institution — one
in which decisions are made as a result of data generated from
strong research-based study,” said Mellblom, who also is
a professor of special education and director of the CSUDH Center
for Learning and Academic Support Services. “This reaffirmation
of our accreditation confirms the usefulness of this research.
Self study and institutional reflection is a continuous process
that affords ongoing opportunities for evaluation and assessment
of the effects of campus programs, polices and decisions.”
For
more information about the WASC process at CSU Dominguez Hills,
visit www.csudh.edu/wasc.
# # #
---------------------------------------------- About
CSU Dominguez Hills -- California
State University, Dominguez Hills is a highly diverse,
urban university located in the South Bay, primarily
serving the
Los Angeles metropolitan area. The university prides itself
on its outstanding faculty and friendly, student-centered
environment.
Known for excellence in teacher education, nursing, psychology,
business administration, and digital media arts, new degree
programs include computer science, criminal justice,
recreation and leisure
studies, social work, and communication disorders. On campus
is the Home Depot Center, a multi-purpose sports complex
that hosts
world-class soccer, tennis, track and field, lacrosse, and
cycling.
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