In a meeting last week, the board of regents approved the report’s submission to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges which is expected to announce its decision regarding the college’s accreditation before the end of this month.
The accreditation commission has asked NMC to show cause why its accreditation should not be revoked.
If NMC loses its accreditation, its students would no longer be eligible for federal financial aid and the course credits they earn couldn’t be transferred to other institutions.
According to the office of NMC President Carmen Fernandez yesterday, the supplemental report provided additional information to the report submitted to the commission on Oct. 15, 2008, and is also a response to the Nov. 3-5, 2008 visiting team’s recommendations.
“It includes additional evidence that demonstrates the college’s efforts in complying with team recommendations 1, 2, and 5 having to do with integrated planning, program review, budgeting; institutionalizing the program review process, and employee evaluations,” the college said in a statement.
Fernandez said the report also includes NMC’s recently completed “Institutional Excellence Guide,” a comprehensive document which spells out the college’s shared governance structure, and summarizes its integrated planning, program review, and budgeting process.
The report likewise includes a master calendar for three activities and designates the responsible council/committee for each activity with an evaluation component.
The Institutional Excellence Guide requires that the program review and planning activities are to be reported quarterly and conducted annually.
The Year 1 Operational Plan of NMC’s Proa Strategic Plan was reviewed and refined to include success criteria and status reports, the college stated.
The other reports that have been submitted included the March 15, 2008 Special Progress Report; the May 31, 2008 Update to the March 15, 2008 Special Progress Report; and the Oct. 15, 2008 Show Cause Report.
“The supplemental report was prepared with considerable input from the college community,” said Fernandez. “We are proud of the effort that many students, staff, and faculty placed into completing the report.”
During last week’s meeting, board chairman Charles Cepeda commended Fernandez, the NMC staff and students for their work in completing the supplemental report.
