Back See this section in context: Self-Study Process

Introduction

Over the years, Sauk employees have participated in a variety of brainstorming activities. When asked to identify the college’s strengths, they have always included “employees” as one of those strengths. If there were ever any doubt about that being true, the self-study should put it to rest. Sauk employees demonstrated what makes them an institutional strength by how they worked on the self-study:

The entire self-study was accomplished by volunteers. Except for the writer (who received some release time from teaching duties), the people involved with the self-study received no extra compensation for any of the extra work they took on. The Steering Committee listed below is one such group. They volunteered to take responsibility for a portion of the study, attend meetings, conduct research, write outlines and drafts, and support one another. But much of the rest of the campus also volunteered their time to the effort: providing data and information; reading drafts; providing input and feedback; and participating in promotional activities, overseen by the self-study mascot, ACE, the Sauk Monkey (pictured). The HLC Focused Visit in 2006, for which the entire campus community prepared and which was credited with having “transformed” campus community interaction, also helped to keep the importance of the affirmation of accreditation process fresh in the minds of the faculty and staff who had participated.

As one of the first steps in the process, President Mihel articulated the following goals for the self-study:

1. To assure that every employee understands and has the opportunity to participate in the reaccreditation process.
2. To engage employees from all job classifications in a critical, comprehensive evaluation of the institution.
3. To better understand our students and our evolving population base and to identify ways to better serve them.
4. To identify the institutional strengths which may be built upon and the weaknesses which need improvement.
5. To generate findings to be used in the institution’s strategic plan.
6. To receive a ten year, continued accreditation from the HLC.

The contents of this report testify to the achievement of the first five of these goals. Sauk Valley Community College submits this self-study report with the assurance that the consultant-evaluators at the Reaffirmation of Accreditation Visit will be thoroughly convinced by their contact with the college community that the college merits continued accreditation from the HLC, thereby meeting the sixth and ultimate goal set for the self-study process.