Information for Faculty

Faculty are encouraged to discuss the upcoming review team visit with their students. Sample language that could be included on syllabi, posted on D2L Brightspace, or discussed in class follows below:

SMSU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). Accreditation is necessary for continued federal funding and recognition of credits. In order to remain accredited, every ten years the University must be reviewed. On Oct. 20-22, a team of reviewers will be visiting campus. They will be asking students, faculty, and community members what they think about the University and what their experiences have been. A special open meeting will be held for students. Please welcome them and answer their questions. For more information, see the website: www.smsu.edu/go/hlc/.

Faculty need to submit a current (within the past three years) vita by September 5th to LeeAnn Teig (English Department office assistant) at leeann.teig@smsu.edu. They will be available in a protected online file for the HLC reviewers to look through as they consider qualifications and credentials of teaching staff. MSUAASF members should submit a vita if teaching a class. Other MSUAASF members might have received a vita/resume request from supervisors; if so, please follow those instructions instead.

Please help with the collection of syllabi as needed. This is a continuation of the collection that was started several years ago. The syllabi that are being collected for HLC are for that purpose only; we respect your intellectual property rights and are not distributing the syllabi in any way other than to let the HLC reviewers look through them as they need to. If your department or program collects syllabi for other purposes, that is up to your department/program policies. For our HLC purposes, your office administrative assistant will be converting syllabi into PDFs and placing them in an electronic folder accessible to the peer reviewers.