Middle States: Sept 18 Update from President Keizs

To the College Community:

This notice serves as a further update to my communication of July 2018 on the status of the College’s Middle States accreditation efforts.

As you are aware, in June 2018, the Commission outlined the requirements to be met by York College/CUNY and during the summer we took immediate action. Led by the Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, an action plan was implemented, committees to enhance York’s “culture of assessment” were developed or expanded, CUNY leadership ( including the Interim Chancellor Rabinowitz) was consulted, all toward the goal of addressing the conditions leading up to the warning and in preparation for writing the required response in a Monitoring Report. This effort involves articulating a clearer narrative regarding assessment that has been done at the college for the last decade in addition to providing evidence of the current assessment efforts, and assuring the Commission that York’s “culture of assessment” is intentional, systematic, sustained, transparent and linked to resource allocation.

While the campus-wide assessment cycle activities continue, a newly-created Monitoring Report Committee is overseeing the project with three additional committees addressing specific areas. This work is being guided by campus leaders with the assistance of a team of consultants with extensive backgrounds and expertise in assessment as well as familiarity with the Commission’s requirements. The team includes two CUNY experts in such matters and two outside consultants who are both knowledgeable of CUNY and Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). These individuals are part of York’s Monitoring Report Committee. The Committee’s chair is Dr. Panayiotis Meleties, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs with Dr. Debra Swoboda as the Faculty Lead.

The additional committees created to support the work of the Monitoring Report Committee and gather the needed evidence are:

General Education Committee, Timothy Paglione, Chair
Academic Assessment Committee, Linda Barley, Chair
Administrative, Educational and Student Support Assessment Committee, Charmaine Cruise, Chair

Forty-seven members of the York College community, faculty, staff and administrators, serve on these committees together with two colleagues from CUNY and our two consultants. These committees began meeting as early as July and have intensified their work in the fall 2018 semester. At present they continue to meet on an as needed or bi-weekly basis. The work of the committees is posted on Blackboard so that information is easily shared and with the intent to keep the process transparent. The enhanced assessment plans together with the accompanying assessment findings and needed evidence will provide the basis of the communication to the Commission.

On September 27, 2018 the MSCHE Liaison, Dr. Kushnood Haq will meet with various constituencies on the York College campus to further guide our efforts in successfully completing the Monitoring Report, due on March 1, 2019.

Marcia V. Keizs

President