Geneseo is in the process of conducting a self-study as part of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education reaccreditation process.
According to its website, the MSCHE is a non-governmental organization that "defines, maintains, and promotes educational excellence across institutions with diverse missions, student populations, and resources."
The self-study committee is comprised of 16 members including faculty, staff and students, but there are about 60 people involved in the project in some way. Headed by Associate Provost David Gordon and biology professor Ray Spear, the committee is in charge of creating a document that will serve as the basis for an evaluation by the MSCHE. There have already been three open forums this year in which the committee presented preliminary findings and addressed questions from the community.
"The self-study is a report … that describes and analyzes how the college is meeting the [Middle States] accreditation standards and that makes recommendations for improvements," Gordon said.
"We expect to learn more about the college's strengths and where improvements can be made," Gordon said. "We also hope that we will be found to be in full compliance with all of the [MSCHE] standards. The self-study will contain recommendations, but making the decision of whether to act on the recommendations will fall to others. Any recommendations will be in terms of changes that will help advance the college mission and goals."
The self-study committee is currently working on a draft of its findings and an evaluation team from MSCHE is expected to visit Geneseo in spring 2012.