As the University prepares for next week’s external evaluation by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the focus shifts toward the areas which the NCA last addressed 10 years ago during their last visit.

The NCA grants accreditation to all schools in its 19-state jurisdiction, which allows Bowling Green students’ credits to transfer to another accredited school and allows University students to receive federal financial aid.

Bill Knight and Mark Gromko, the co-chairs of the steering committee that is handling the accreditation review, has been working for nearly three years on a self study, which assesses the University’s progress on the issues the NCA expressed concern over.

The NCA first expressed concern over the lack of integration between the main campus and Firelands, and the study concludes that there is now much more cooperation. Aiding in that cooperation are two-way videos between the two campuses, allowing Firelands staff to participate in events like President’s Day and State of University addresses, among other things.

The absence of a comprehensive academic program review process and strategic planning process were also concerns of the review board in 1993. Since then, an academic program review formed in 1997 and the University’s Planning Council was formed in 1998.

Student assessment has also improved, according to Knight and Gromko’s committee, as the University has allowed each individual department to do their own assessment. Included in this section of the report, though, is one downfall to the new student assessment plan: Unevenness throughout different departments. “Obviously, we wanted to address the issues the board reported to us in 1993,” Knight said. “And in some cases, there will be things we do still need to work on. In every case though, we have made significant progress in each area the group asked us to.”

Perhaps the most important issue the group had with the University was continued connection of all faculty members to the school’s network project. Gromko and Knight say that with the completion of the infrastructure project in 2001, the integration of the faculty is an ongoing process.

“The University supports faculty, staff and students with state-of-the-art technology,” the report says, “including 516 electronic devices connected by fiber-optic cable in University buildings, more than 3.3 million feet of interior building cable, 43 miles of exterior cable, 25 miles of exterior copper cable and 7400 computer units that are centrally-supported and funded.”

The NCA also reported committee structures and governance responsibilities, sexual harassment policies, faculty research productivity, too many curricular specialization and the level of mutual respect and trust as other areas they wanted to see improvement in when they return this year.

The association has five issues in its overview that are specifically desired, which Knight and Gromko have also addressed in their study: Clearly-stated purposes, resources, efficacy, planning and integrity.