NWCCU Standard 2 Development
What?
WOU’s accreditation with the Northwest Commission of Colleges & Universities (NWCCU) is based on:
- Mission fulfillment, in light of our core themes of student success and academic excellence
- The demonstrated effectiveness of our processes for planning, budgeting, assessment and continuous improvement
- The adequacy of our resources and capacity
In summer 2018, we began development of our response to NWCCU’s Standard 2 (Resources & Capacity). We are reviewing and updating our narrative and evidence through the Accreditation Management function on TK20.
Reviews will focus on:
- Is the response clear, current and comprehensive? Is something missing? Have things changed?
- What evidence can we provide (e.g., links to policies, procedures, etc)?
- Is the narrative as responsive as possible to the standard?
- What might we need to do in this area in the next year or two to position ourselves for success in 2023?
This webpage has tips on how to use TK20 to complete this work. Those responsible also received an email with this information. If you would like hands on assistance with this work or the TK20 technology, you can set up a one-to-one meeting with Sue Monahan (smonahan@wou.edu).
Why?
The Resources & Capacity section of our 2023 report will not be submitted until 2023. That said, necessary policies and actions to meet the requirements of Standard 2 can take time to develop and implement. We are starting now to ensure that we are well positioned to succeed in the future.
Who?
The President’s Cabinet has identified faculty and staff across campus whose work relates to the requirements in Standard 2. This group receives regular email reminders of upcoming activities and deadlines. Individuals within this group have access to areas of the Standard relevant to their work via TK20, and each part of the standard has a “chair” and review team especially chosen for its members’ expertise in a given area.
When?
Initial reviews and updates of Standard 2 will be completed by November 30, 2018.
Where?
We are doing this work in TK20. For most of us, TK20 is a link on the right side of our portal page; just click in the TK20 box and you’ll be directed to the TK20 site. If TK20 is not linked in your portal, you can access TK20 at this link — https://wou.tk20.com/campustoolshighered/start.do — using your WOU log in credentials: username@wou.edu and password.
Once in TK20, choose ACCREDITATION MANAGEMENT from the menu on the left.
Then click OVERVIEW. Feel free to poke around in the other tabs to see what they do/show you. But you’ll write and comment on the overview tab.
How?
Below is a screenshot of the OVERVIEW page. In the OVERVIEW page you will see the parts that YOU have been assigned to.
- The blue arrow points to helpful tips for how to edit or comment (thanks, Bev West!) … it is good to read this first or print it out. Once in a particular standard, this link does not appear.
- The red arrow points to the chair of a particular section — that’s who identified you as having important contributions to make to the section and has final responsibility for indicating that sections are complete
- The green arrow points to a number that represents the size of the team for that standard — click on it to see who you are working with
(click on image for clearer view)
Use the links in the left column to get to materials for each part of the standard. Below is a screenshot taken within a standard.
For each part of Standard 2, we uploaded:
- The language for the standard from NWCCU (green arrow)
- Text from WOU’S 2016 Self-Evaluation (so we do not reinvent the wheel unnecessarily) (red arrow)
- Comments attributed to Sue Monahan are actually taken from our 2016 Peer Evaluation Report — these comments reflect how the review team thought we did on each part of the standard and will point us to areas where improvement may be needed (blue arrow)
The teal arrow directs you to where you click to add a comment. Again, there is an instruction link within TK20 with tips on editing and commenting. Upon completing your edits or comment, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the screen and SAVE.
On smaller teams, all members have edit privileges. On larger teams, most members may be limited to commenting. Questions about modifying edit and comment privileges can be sent to Sue Monahan (smonahan@wou.edu). These can be easily changed to meet the needs of specific teams.