Message from the Provost
Institutional reaccreditation happens every ten years. It is an opportunity for us to assess not only our progress in realizing our current strategic vision, but also to consciously create a vision for our future. We are now in the midst of our 2009 Reaccreditation engagement, and are assessing what it means to be a Great Public Research University. It is my pleasure to invite you to follow along and to become part of the process.
Our campus, over the last two reaccreditation cycles, has made use of the self-study process for reaccreditation, required by our institutional accrediting body, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, to specifically evaluate our progress on our existing campus strategic plan and to develop the next strategic plan.
This past spring (2007) the Reaccreditation team undertook one of the largest campuswide engagement processes ever attempted, to identify the themes for our institutional self study. The spring engagements included a survey that captured what current students, staff and faculty, as well as alumni, value about UW–Madison, and what issues they think we as a campus need to be focused on as we look to the future. We now have six campuswide teams studying themes that emerged from that engagement process.
The reaccreditation process creates a rare opportunity for UW–Madison as a whole to spend time reflecting on where we are, and perhaps more important, where we want to be headed. At this point, with limited state resources and many other challenges and expectations for higher education in general, this process also provides an important opportunity for us to reflect specifically on what it means to be a first-rate public research institution.
I have charged the teams to think boldly and help us identify important new directions we need to explore in response to changing environments and conditions, and emerging fields of study. The team chairs and members also are very much aware of the values and traditions that make this university unique, and I trust their recommendations will reflect these. The team reports will be completed in late spring 2008, at which time we will ask the campus to comment on the visions that the teams have created. We will bring the reports together and create our full self-study report in the summer. By fall 2008, I hope we will be deeply engaged in discussions as a campus about our next campus strategic plan, incorporating the ideas put forth in the team reports.
Our Higher Learning Commission appointed site team visit is tentatively scheduled for April 27–29, 2009. Please check back to this Web site and the UW–Madison homepage often to read updates and learn more about our progress.
Sincerely,
Patrick V. Farrell
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs