Academic Affairs News

Dear Colleagues, 

A team from WKU recently returned from the annual Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission On Colleges (SACSCOC) meeting where we went through orientation for the Class of 2025 – our year for reaffirmation of SACSCOC accreditation. WKU has been continuously accredited since 1926. The institutional accreditation cycle is every 10 years with an interim report on the fifth year that includes a report on our QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan.)  

Accreditation is an important component of WKU because it defines us as a university with quality academic programs, student success programs, and highly qualified faculty.  Accreditation is also important because it is one of the ways we demonstrate compliance with federal regulations that allow our students to use federal financial aid. Without institutional accreditation, we wouldn’t be able to serve students who need financial aid to access higher education. 

Beth Laves, our Institutional Accreditation Liaison, has begun putting together writing teams who will receive training and begin roughing out the first draft of the off-site report this spring. Writing will continue until the report is due in September 2024 which will come all too soon as we put together narratives and collect documentation of our university’s work according to 73 different standards identified by SACSCOC. We won’t have time to rest as we prepare for our on-site visit on February 24-27, 2025. The SACSCOC Board of Trustees will announce the decision at their annual meeting in December 2025. A website with resources and information about our process is now up https://www.wku.edu/sacscoc2025/. 

List of Writing Teams 

How you can help 

These team leaders will be reaching out to potential team members for help writing, and to others who have data and information that will be helpful in making our case for compliance and demonstrating the quality of our faculty, staff, programs and services. I ask that share your knowledge and experience with the teams so that we may prepare the best possible reaffirmation response.  Thank you in advance for your efforts and expertise toward another successful reaffirmation.  

Thank you,

Robert "Bud" Fischer

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs