Expanded Accreditation, Program Assessment and Improvement

Crystal Lange

Terry Ishihara

Altaf Rahman

James Mitchell

Paul Uselding

tion from national organizations. The College of Education received accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in 1992, recognizing SVSU as a premier institution for teacher preparation. Its status required constant maintenance, and every few years the college needed to prepare for visits by accreditation reviewers. It showed evaluators it prepared future teachers according to NCATE standards, typically more stringent than those the state of Michigan mandated.

Similarly, nursing instruction at SVSU received accreditation from the National League of Nursing (NLN) in 1989. The NLN renewed the program’s status every eight years, giving SVSU the longest accreditation period allowed. When nursing administrators sought and received accreditation in 1991 for the Master of Science in Nursing degree, the NLN stipulated that current and new faculty needed to have doctorates in order to offer graduate courses. Crystal Lange, dean of SVSU’s nursing college, already had been encouraging her staff to obtain doctorates. Still, most nursing faculty at that time had master’s degrees, and many needed to take the rare step of returning to college to earn doctorates.4

Program accreditation placed SVSU on par with other highly recognized and valued peer institutions. In 1989, Terry Ishihara and Altaf Rahman co-chaired a committee that prepared the College of Science, Engineering & Technology to receive approval from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), which meant that the college ranked among the best of the nation’s schools in its specialty. Approximately 12 percent of the colleges and universities in the nation had accredited engineering departments in the years after SVSU’s College of Science, Engineering & Technology achieved the distinction in 1990.5 Accreditation also significantly assisted the university in recruiting students and helping graduates find employment or placement in advanced-degree programs.

Likewise, the College of Business & Management was among fewer than a quarter of the business colleges in the nation to receive accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). That daunting task began in 1993. In the decade following former Dean James Mitchell’s retirement in 1993, four permanent and interim deans led the College of Business & Management as it sought accreditation. Paul Uselding, who became dean in 1999, learned in the spring of 2003 that the AACSB had accredited the college and ecstatically proclaimed that “we have a new address — we’ve moved to a better neighborhood!” Uselding added that “the value of a degree in business from SVSU just went up significantly. I would anticipate that we can recruit students here that heretofore might not have considered SVSU. I think we will attract more and better students.”6

Also in the College of Business & Management, the Accounting Department created the Bachelor of Professional Accountancy during the 1994-1995 academic year to keep its standards in line with the expectations of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and stay ahead of expected changes in Michigan’s accounting laws.7

Expanded Accreditation, Program Assessment and Improvement

The Occupational Therapy program admitted its first students in 1993 and received initial accreditation from the American Occupational Therapy Association in 1995.8 The Chemistry Department gained certification by the American Chemical Society, the athletic training program by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) and in December 2009 the Department of Music became a member of the

Nicole Calandrino was a chemistry major who loved science. At SVSU, she started a new dream, about a career in the administrative end of a biotechnology or environmental company, possibly mediating between administration and research and development. After a job shadow and marketing project for a Midland biotechnology company, she was surer than ever about her dream. “I want to minor in agricultural studies to better merge my interest in science and business,” Nicole said. With mentoring and advice from Dr. Joseph Affholter (The Dow Entrepreneur-in-Residence, a scientist and businessman) and Dr. Martin Arford (associate professor of geography and chair of the agricultural studies steering committee), Nicole switched her major to economics and has minors in biology, entrepreneurship and now agricultural studies.