Webb Dean, Professors attend Middle States Self-Study Institute Workshop

February 8, 2021

Dean Werner, Assistant Dean Harris, and Professors Martin and Onas attended a Middle States Self-Study Institute in Philadelphia, November 6-8.  The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) is one of two organizations that accredit Webb Institute.  The workshop focused on the new MSCHE standards for reaccreditation and provided information on the way in which colleges and universities should work toward preparing their next self-study assessment reports.  Webb will submit its self-study report in the fall of 2019, and there will be a team visit and evaluation in the spring of 2020.  For details, see below.

About Middle States Accreditation: 

Purpose of Middle States Accreditation

“Middle States accreditation is an expression of confidence in an institution’s mission and goals, its performance, and its resources.  An institution is accredited when the educational community has verified that its goals are achieved though self-regulation and peer review.  The extent to which each educational institution accepts and fulfills the responsibilities inherent in the process of accreditation is a measure of its commitment to striving for and achieving excellence in its endeavors.”—Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation, Thirteenth Edition, MSCHE, 2015.

There are fifteen Requirements for Affiliation and seven Standards for Accreditation.  All must be addressed in the design document and the self-study report.  A school’s reaccreditation plan can follow either a Standards or a Priorities approach.  Webb’s self-study will be designed in terms of a Standards approach.  See Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation (Thirteenth Edition, MSCHE Documents below).

Schedule of upcoming events

  • Telephone or Skype conference with MSCHE liaison, Ellie Fogarty, to discuss progress on assessment design document, January 2018
  • Progress reports submitted to liaison for comment, January and February 2018
  • Webb’s design document completed by March 1, 2018
  • Design document submitted to liaison by March 1, 2018
  • Liaison responds to design document
  • Liaison visits campus to talk with President Michel, representatives from the BOT, faculty, administration, staff, and students, in late March or early April 2018.

Evidence Inventory

Documents pertaining to our assessment process are currently available on campus.  These documents will also become part of Middle State’s Evidence Inventory (EI), a portal that Middle States will create for Webb personnel, both on and off campus; for our liaison; and finally, for the team of peer evaluators who will evaluate our report and visit the campus in early 2020.  In other words, the EI will be an ongoing central repository of all documents pertinent to Webb’s assessment and reaccreditation process.  These documents will be referred to in both the self-study report per se and in the appendices to the report.

Steering Committee

Webb’s Steering Committee, which will direct the various aspects of the assessment process, is composed of the following Webb faculty and staff:

  • Assistant Dean Richard Harris and Professor Mike Martin (Co-chairs)
  • Dean Matthew Werner
  • Professor Adrian Onas, Coordinator of ABET Assessment
  • Lauren Carballo, Director of Admissions and Student Affairs
  • Rhonda Lightcap, Director of Financial Affairs
  • Anthony Zic, Director of Development
  • and, in addition,
  • Jon LaBerge, Vice Chairman, Webb Institute BOT; Chair of Finance Committee
  • Jennifer Waters, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, United States Naval Academy

MSCHE Documents

Following is a list of Middle States documents central to our upcoming self-study report: