The creation of a student achievement tracking system, a commitment to student support and establishing a collegial, inclusive college culture were among the praises given to Gavilan College during its recent accreditation renewal process.
College President/Superintendent Steven Kinsella notified staff that Gavilan was given a new six-year accreditation from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
“Congratulations to you all for an outstanding display of what we do to ensure a quality of education is provided to our students and the communities we serve,” said Kinsella in an email to Gavilan employees.
Members of the ACCJC visited Gavilan College in March before voting to reaffirm accreditation, which is a “voluntary system of self regulation developed to evaluate overall educational quality and institutional effectiveness.” Only students of accredited institutions are eligible for federal financial aid programs, or able to transfer credits to other colleges and universities.
“We did an outstanding job,” said Kinsella, who praised faculty for their ongoing awareness and commitment to the standards of accreditation. “We live the standards in everything we do.”
In its commendations of Gavilan, the External Evaluation Team acknowledged the college’s implementations of an outreach program, student-orientation course and student leadership development.
Along with five commendations for Gavilan College, including one for its Board of Trustees, the commission offered two recommendations and have scheduled a follow-up report due March 15, 2014. The first recommendation is that the college develop and implement “an effective, systematic, and comprehensive institutional strategy closely integrating student learning outcomes with all planning and decision-making efforts and resource allocations.”
The second recommendation is to “conduct research and analysis to ensure learning support services for distance education are of comparable quality to those intended for students who attend the physical campus.
The complete Institutional Self-Study, the letter from the commission, and the Report of the External Evaluation Team are posted on the Gavilan College website at www.gavilan.edu/accreditation.
