Accreditation team members indicated to Nicholls officials Friday that the University is in compliance with all 73 criteria required by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Commission on Colleges.The team will submit an official narrative report on its visit to Nicholls in two weeks, Allayne Barrilleaux, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, said. Nicholls will then have five months to draft a response to any requests the team may make. The final decision of whether Nicholls’ accreditation will be reaffirmed will be announced in December.
“We had a very, very good exit interview,” Barrilleaux said. “As far as our compliance report, they recommended our reaffirmation with no recommendations. That is just phenomenal. I don’t know if that has ever happened before at Nicholls.”
Nicholls had submitted its Compliance Certification Report in November, but SACS had questions about five of the criteria. Barrilleaux prepared a focused report responding to the five questions before the onsite visit last week. Barrilleaux said Nicholls will not have to complete another follow-up report on compliance following the visit.
Barrilleaux said the team did offer a few comments and suggestions on how to improve the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan. Nicholls’ plan, “L’esprit engag” or “The Engaged Mind,” calls for collaborative learning environments that will increase students’ critical thinking skills, as exhibited through writing.
Nicholls will learn about the revisions it needs to make to the plan through the narrative report. Barrilleaux said the University knows that the team will probably request that Nicholls name people to be in charge of the different parts of the plan and to refine the plan’s assessment process.
“The suggestions they gave us in the exit interview were very positive,” Barrilleaux said. “They will help us move this plan into the implementation phase. One of the team members even said that our QEP is truly in the spirit of what SACS intended when requiring QEPs.”
Barrilleaux said the University’s only surprise throughout the onsite visit was how well everything went.
“The team was gone by 2 p.m. on Thursday,” Barrilleaux said. “They were done and going back to the hotel. That’s unheard of; we have a lot to be proud of.
