Brooklyn College Receives Kudos, Suggestions For Change Following Middle States Re-Accreditation Visit
4/21/2009
Brooklyn College's once-a-decade Middle States Commission on Higher Education re-accreditation process reached a milestone on Wednesday with the completion of a four-day campus visit which saw the college lauded for major progress achieved in the past ten years in areas including student services, faculty hiring and support, technology and outcomes assessment processes.
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| Middle States' team leader and College of New Jersey President R. Barbara Gitenstein |
R. Barbara Gitenstein, the Middle States’ team leader and College of New Jersey President, emphasized that while her exit interview remarks did not represent the team’s final report to the Commission, it reflected what their findings would be. Gitenstein prefaced her official remarks by thanking the entire college community for “your generosity, hospitality, forthrightness and responsiveness” both during the latest campus visit and the long and complex process in which information was gathered to determine if compliance and progress on meeting the 14 standards for which all colleges are reviewed by Middle States had been exhibited.
In particular, Gitenstein praised President Christoph M. Kimmich for his candor and leadership, and Assistant Dean and Executive Assistant to the Provost Colette Wagner for her outstanding attention to detail and flexibility in making the Middle States working relationship with the College seamless. “And finally, I want to thank our student escorts for a job well done!,” she joked, “And for making sure not a one of us got lost during our time here.”
Gitenstein’s remarks cited measurable and significant progress in no fewer than two- dozen areas, and cited the College’s commitment to be guided by its revised, student-centered mission statement “to provide a superior education in the arts and sciences” as the central academic architecture for both recent and continued success.
“There was a refreshing candor and genuine self-reflectiveness throughout the Middle States process,” Gitenstein said, adding that the College’s two-year period of self-evaluation had clearly addressed suggestions from the last re-accreditation in the areas of technology, campus diversity and a more refined overall planning process. She also commented favorably on the significant and visible progress in other areas, including infrastructure investments; the Library and Library Café; changes in the tenure and promotion process; improvements in academic advisement; the work of the Magner Center; and the dramatic success in increasing the Brooklyn College Foundation’s endowment.
The team also had three suggestions for improving the College’s performance: engaging in a broadly consultative process for the revision of academic structure; accepting our history of success without being bound by it; and by deepening the support for a new generation of faculty leaders. The committee also recommended that the college revise and assess the College’s graduate programs in regards to the mission, relevance and outcomes of offerings, while also improving the services provided to graduate students.Dr. Gitenstein carefully outlined the final steps needed to “close the loop” and complete the Middle States re-accreditation process. The first step will be for the team to forward an initial report for the President’s review within the next two weeks. Dr. Kimmich will then have ten days in which to review the document, and to return it to the team with corrections of any factual errors. The Middle States team will then be tasked with making the factual changes within seven days, before returning a final report to the College for an official response on the substance and findings. The final report and institutional response are both then submitted to the full Middle States Commission for its action.
Professor Ellen Belton, who chaired one of the Middle States steering committees for the past two years, said: “Coming from today’s exit interviews, I just want to say that the Middle States team report reminded me why I am so proud to be a member of the BC community.”
