SACSCOC Finalizes 10-year Reaffirmation with Zero Recommendations

The Board of Trustees for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), voted recently to affirm Tennessee Wesleyan University’s 10-year Accreditation Certificate.

SACSCOC serves as TWU’s accrediting agency, and is an essential partnership for the institution in continuing to provide outstanding education to Bulldog students. An extensive process for 10-year Accreditation includes months of data collection and organization, countless hours of work on the part of many faculty and staff, and ultimately an on-site visit by members of the SACSCOC team this past spring (done virtually due to COVID-19).

“Tennessee Wesleyan University’s 10-year reaffirmation approval from SACSCOC signifies that the institution is of educational quality and effectiveness,” said Dr. Stephanie Smallen, TWU’s VP for Institutional Effectiveness and Research. “The process of reaffirmation is extremely rigorous, involving countless hours of planning, writing, and preparation. To have a successful reaffirmation represented so much more than a process, but rather recognition by our peers for all the years of hard work and dedication to excellence. To have no recommendations after the virtual on-site committee visit positioned the University amongst the elite as this is a rare outcome.”

The vote by the Board of Trustees finalizes the process and officially grants the University it’s 10-year certificate. As mentioned, the SACSCOC team in charge of TWU’s certificate had no recommendations in follow-up reports, a rare feat by any University.

“In the exit interview during the virtual on-site visit, we were on the edge of our seats waiting for the chair of the committee to read the decision of the on-site committee,” recalled Smallen. “To hear the committee chair say that after chairing over 25 on-site reviews, this was the first time she ever got to say, ‘zero recommendations’ was astounding.”

“A big thank you goes to all of the faculty and staff for their assistance, expertise, and patience with this review process,” said TWU President Dr. Harley Knowles in an email to the TWU faculty and staff, “as well as with the development of the Quality Enhancement Plan which is a required element of the review process.”

“Because of their excellent work, we had no recommendations to address in follow-up reports nor any monitoring requirements to submit in the future. It does not get any better than that!”