The Western Association of Schools and Colleges is finishing an almost four-year re-accreditation process for Sacramento State and held open meetings last week to discuss ongoing issues at the university.

The meetings were set up to allow students and faculty to voice concerns in front of the association officials, who will in turn use the gathered information in their final report on the university.

The re-accreditation process involved Sac State performing self-studies on its performance in academics, faculty assessment and strategic planning.

The association’s most recent visit to Sac State was in March 2007, when it gave an initial evaluation of the campus’ performance. Last week it returned to check the university’s progress.

Some of the more prominent issues that came up during the student and faculty meetings related to academic advising and how colleges and professors assess student work.

Senior government major Joaquin Castaneda, Associated Students Inc’s, Office of Governmental Affairs director, addressed the advising problem at the student meeting.

“There is no base line advising procedure that is consistent with every college,” Castaneda said. “The ultimate goal of the university should be to unify, and we aren’t doing that.”

He said he didn’t know of anyone in the government department who advised students on their progress.

Other students at the meeting seemed to have different experiences.

Senior health science major Amelia Stults said she received excellent advising throughout her time at Sac State.

“My advisers really took the time to develop a plan with me,” Stults said. “They were always there to support me and help me get internships.”

Although she agreed with Castaneda that more student advising is needed, she believes students shouldn’t rely on advisers.

“I think overall, when people experience advising issues, it’s brought on by not enough prep work by the student,” Stults said.

ASI Executive Vice President Roberto Torres sympathized with Castaneda’s claim.

“The school has historically placed advising and academics in the backseat,” Torres said. “We’ve built more buildings, but haven’t expanded academic advising.”

He said the school has improved by offering more academic advising programs for freshmen and honor students.

Torres said ASI hasn’t pushed for increased academic advising, but hopes it will in the future.

University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph Sheley said students’ comments on advising are not misleading and the university is hoping to see improvement.

According to the Sac State Education Effectiveness Review, the response to the association’s last visit, the university has been pushing toward better university-wide advisement practices by enrolling more first-year students into freshmen’s programs and structuring mandatory advising for them.

Sheley said academic advising is also currently working on providing more advisement programs for second-year students. He said these students are a current priority when it comes to expanding academic advising.

Associate professor Joseph Palermo said he felt trepidation that the association was adding assessment duties to professors which could possible affect their teaching. The professors must evaluate how their teaching practices affect the students.

“They’re adding assessment duties to the already large faculty work load. WASC is like another layer of management,” Palermo said.

Denise Konan, the association’s committee chair and professor at the University of Hawaii, Mánoa, acknowledged that assumption about WASC, but said the association has changed the way in which it evaluates a university’s success.

“Before there was a checklist of minimum qualifications each programs had to meet,” Konan said. “We are now more focused on the success of students.”

Going along with the focus on student success rather than minimum qualifications, the university set up the Office of Academic Program Assessment, which helps professors and colleges evaluate what and how students are learning to enhance teaching at the university.

Faculty Senate Chair Bruce Bikle said there is rumbling among faculty about the extra workload these assessments place on them. He said professors need to constantly ask themselves if they are doing what they should be doing.

“Every department in the university should be asking themselves if their students know the material when they leave,” Bikle said.

Bikle believes the association’s re-accreditation process was a positive experience, and ultimately improved the campus. Konan agrees.

“We’re thrilled about how engaged the students and faculty are in the process,” Konan said.

Sheley agreed with Konan’s assessment and says the university has greatly improved, especially concerning budget transparency, the university’s strategic focus and the weak relationship between student affairs and academic affairs, especially with regard to academic advising.

“They were here during a pretty tough time for our campus.” Sheley said. “But we have systems in place that are fixing these problems and they are showing results.”

Bikle said some of the associations suggested improvements included the implementation of the University Budget Advisory Committee and the university’s.

WASC Accreditation Timeline

April 2005 – Sac State completed its Institutional Proposal detailing academic and campus wide goals.

December 2006 – Sac State submitted the Capacity and Preparatory Review, detailing the progress made on the goals listed in the Institutional Proposal.

March 2007 – WASC visited Sac State to evaluate the progress detailed in the review and to propose suggestions on further improvements.

January 2009 – Sac State submitted the Educational Effectiveness Report detailing progress made on the WASC suggestions from the March 2007 visit.

April 2009 – WASC returned to Sac State to evaluate the progress detailed in the Education Effectiveness Report and held open meetings for students, faculty and staff where they could voice their opinions about the university.

June 2009 – WASC will submit its final accreditation report to Sac State.

Michael Mette can be reached at [email protected].