Loyola is one step closer to reaffirming its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

A committee of SACS representatives visited campus last week to evaluate the progress Loyola has made. SACS is an organization that evaluates institutes of higher learning in the South, ensuring that they are meeting certain standards of education.To become accredited with SACS, a school must meet the organization’s criteria of 80 principles. The principles include filing a compliance certificate, writinga Quality Enhancement Plan, and on- and -off-campus peer reviews of compliance.

Last Thursday, SACS verbally reported Loyola met all principles, according to a campus-wide e-mail sent by the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., university president.

“Each member of the committee was taken aback by the personal and community loss that we have suffered this past fall,” Wildes wrote. “They were amazed at how well we

are functioning as a university.”

Wildes also reported that the QEP was accepted in its entirety by the on-site committee and that there were “no recommendations for changes.”

The QEP was a two-year undertaking and was written by a committee of 19 faculty, staff, a student and an alumni who represent various organization and departments of Loyola.

The Law School, University Libraries, Student Government Association and the Jesuit Center were just a few of the many areas represented. These members were divided into

subcommittees to better handle the workload.

The QEP is titled “Thinking Critically, Acting Justly.” It has three main initiatives to expand on campus that will be introduced over the next five years: staff and faculty

development, first-year experiences and student leadership, according to Loyola’s Web site.

Si Hendry, S.J., worked extensively on the faculty and staff development initiative.

“The best way to implement long-term change (on campus) is to work with faculty,” Hendry said.

By having faculty members actively working on service learning projects, they can pass their knowledge on to students, Hendry said. “That’ll affect how they run their

classes.”

One visible change that resulted from the reaccreditation process is online access to class syllabuses. This was one measure to ensure meeting SACS’ standards for accredited

institutions.

Loyola is required to undergo reaccreditation every 10 years.

Meghan Wasson can be reached at [email protected].