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By Mercedes Deleon
Report Card (Khai Le)
By Mercedes Deleon
The Accrediting Committee report reaffirmed the accreditation of Riverside Community College. The Committees report also left a requirement that the college complete a total of two progress reports.
Linda Lacey, interim president said that, “Of the ten possible findings available to the commission, this was the second highest possible.”
Those who participated in completing the study took significant pride in their performances. Although RCC achieved success in reaffirming its accreditation, there are still minor challenges and revisions that have yet to be made and implemented.
The evaluation team’s first recommendation was the theme of institutional commitments and evaluation. The team recommends that the Board of Trustees and chancellor develop and put into practice a district strategic plan that will align with the district mission statement, provide a framework for strategic plans, and drive the allocation of district resources.
When asked what is being done to meet the expectations of this recommendation, Lacy affirmed that reports are in progress.
“A draft will be completed in April, and the final revision will be completed in June,” she said
The final revision of the mission statement will be available in June to the Academic Senate. The Academic Senate who had several faculty members that did an internal accreditation report that matched the official one by the Accreditation Committee. Lacey also expressed her pride in the school’s further progression and positive development.
“The College’s Strategic Planning Committee has already begun work on planning agendas,” she said.
Lacey is confident that RCC’s progress report-due by October will satisfy the Commission’s requirements.”
There is one single accreditation for RCC that embraces all three campuses Norco, Moreno Valley, and Riverside Campus.
Both the Norco and Moreno Valley campuses were denied initial accreditation. They are educational centers, and after becoming eligible for accreditation, both campuses were granted candidacy.
Now that the Norco and Moreno Valley campuses were granted candidacy, they aspire, in the next two years to become separate and independent colleges.
Norco and Moreno Valley failed to become separate campuses by attempting to bypass the candidacy requirement that is required as part of becoming a separate campus and arrive at separate accreditations.
The Accrediting Committee denied their requests because it no longer continues to grant initial accreditations without having served the essential candidacy. The Accrediting Committee requires that if an institution is fully developed and meets all requirements, that does not make them exempt when it comes to awarding accreditation.
However, the Committee did assert that after the campuses have further developed and implemented their recommendation, they would return in October of 2009 to possibly award them accreditation.
A few years earlier, it was a possible to go from eligibility to accreditation, but now every institution must go through candidacy.
Irving Hendrick, interim president for the Moreno Valley campus, acknowledged that their campus received an action letter that includes recommendations that need to be properly addressed in order to receive accreditation.
“We need to have a resource allocation model, we have to connect planning to resource allocation,” he said.”
We need a feedback loop between our program evaluation, and we need future planning and budget allocation.”
Hendrick also stated that there were other issues that reflected the maturity of an independent college, that were not present on their campus or on the Norco campus as well.
Hendrick was extremely pleased with the final evaluation although they were unable to successfully attain separate accreditation.
“I am sure we would have liked to skip the candidacy step and go right into initial accreditation, but it was a pretty bold move, and so we really cannot be disappointed or feel indignant because they didn’t give us initial accreditation,” he said.
The Moreno Valley campus was complimented for its great spirited students, faculty, and administration.
Hopefully, over time, the maturity of the institution will further its development so that accreditation can finally be granted to both the Moreno Valley and Norco campus.