Move comes with commendations, recommendations
By Staff Report
Gavilan College has received a six-year accreditation that praises staff and makes two recommendations to improve.
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, reaffirmed the accreditation at its meeting in June.
Gavilan College president Steve Kinsella announced the news in an email to all staff, which said in part: “Congratulations to you all for an outstanding display of what we do to ensure a quality education is provided to our students and the communities we serve.”
According to the ACCJC website, accreditation is a “voluntary system of self regulation developed to evaluate overall educational quality and institutional effectiveness.” Only students of accredited institutions are eligible for federal financial aid programs, or able to transfer credits to other colleges and universities.
The letter includes two recommendations for the college, as well as five commendations, one of them for the Board of Trustees.
“As a commissioner, I see many of these reports, and it is very rare to see a Board of Trustees recognized in this way,” said Kinsella, who sits on the accrediting commission.
The report of the External Evaluation Team commended Gavilan College for having a “dedicated, enthusiastic, and highly effective board of trustees, who are actively informed, engaged, and involved in institutional policies and district-wide leadership.”
The commission made two recommendations to Gavilan College with a follow-up report due March 15, 2014.
The first is that the college develop and implement “an effective, systematic, and comprehensive institutional strategy closely integrating student learning outcomes with all planning and decision-making efforts and resource allocations.”
The second recommendation is to “conduct research and analysis to ensure learning support services for distance education are of comparable quality to those intended for students who attend the physical campus.”
The complete Institutional Self-Study, the letter from the commission, and the Report of the External Evaluation Team are posted on the Gavilan College website at www.gavilan.edu/accreditation.
