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MUSC prepares for SACS accreditation by Cindy Abole Public Relations The ability to maintain academic credibility within higher education can either make or break an institution. Faculty and staff are intimately familiar with disciplinary accreditation but often lack experience with regional institutional accreditation.   Staying compliant with the numerous requirements of regional agencies to remain accredited is considered every academic institution’s top priority. Without an award of accreditation, the public, along with its students, faculty and staff, lose all trust and good faith in that institution’s mission from granting of diplomas to  mandated loss of federal financial support.   For the next two years, faculty, staff and students will commit themselves to an open, self-study process that will help convince outside evaluators that MUSC deserves to have its current accreditation reaffirmed and to continue its national role as a unique and exemplary comprehensive academic health center.   The process will assess the quality of MUSC’s academic programs with an emphasis on the institution’s effectiveness in the preparation and continuing education of the state’s health professionals.   When it has fully justified and documented the requirements and standards, MUSC will be reaffirmed in achieving accreditation for another 10 years and will join more than 700 southern colleges and universities regionally accredited by SACS, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.   It is expected that this intense process will help clarify and coalesce the institution’s broader goals in achieving academic excellence. The process is a complicated one that will be described in future Catalyst articles. Inherent within the new process which SACS instituted in 2004, organizers will become more effective in long-term planning, in accessing various documents and, most important, in refocusing on the institution's educational programs.      “Perhaps the strongest imperative to succeeding is the absolute dependency of our institution’s federal funding and every professional school and academic program’s accreditation. The basis for this dependency, simply stated, is that the federal government views our regional accreditation agency, SACS, as validating our worthiness to be recognized for our mission and to receive financial support,” said Tom Higerd, Ph.D., associate provost for institutional research and effectiveness as well as MUSC’s liaison officer to SACS. “It is important for everyone within the MUSC family to understand what SACS is about and its purpose. The process of reaffirmation, meaning we are reaffirming the value in having our current accreditation continued for the next 10 years, touches many individuals within the institution and in the communities we serve. Basically, we are preparing for the critical evaluation by outside reviewers in November 2006 and March 2007.”      Institutions seeking to achieve SACS reaffirmation must comply with standards contained in SACS Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement. More specifically, MUSC must meet 14 essential core requirements, comply with 61 comprehensive standards, and fulfill eight federal requirements. Subsequent articles will present these requirements and standards in greater detail.   The process of reaffirmation has changed since MUSC’s accreditation was reaffirmed in 1996 by SACS. The former system involved a series of self-study surveys and analysis.   According to Higerd, today’s SACS accreditation process has shifted with a much stronger emphasis on “student outcomes.” It is less directed on what  MUSC does (processes) and more focused on how the institution measures it's success of academic programs (outcomes). Equally important is taking the results of those measures and improving the educational experience of students. One experience is enhancing student outcomes.   Established in 1895, SACS is one of six regional accrediting associations in the United States that have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Education as its vehicle to assess academic quality. SACS accredits member institutions in 11 Southern states including: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Within the Palmetto state there are currently 51 SACS-accredited colleges and universities.  Friday, Dec. 2, 2005 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.