MARSHALL — The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) visited Southwest Minnesota State University last Monday and Tuesday to evaluate the university on criteria for accreditation and other standards.

The HLC is an agency that accredits degree-granting universities and reviews on a 10-year cycle, and assesses that institutions comply with United States Department of Education requirements.

“That is probably going to be the most important thing that we will do this year,” SMSU President Kumara Jayasuriya said at his state address on Oct. 11. “Without HLC accreditation, we cannot keep our doors open.”

SMSU Provost Dr. Ross Wastvedt is co-chair of the HLC Strategic Planning Committee, along with Dr. Kristin Kovar, who serves as the SMSU Assessment and HLC coordinator.

“They (HLC) determine an institution’s accreditation, and every 10 years that accreditation has to be reaffirmed,” Wastvedt said. “They also make a visit in the middle of that 10-year cycle, but the affirmation of accreditation is every 10 years. So, this was our 10 year visit and the last time we had our accreditation reaffirmed was in 2014 and then, every institution has a visit four years after that (as a midway check in).”

SMSU passed the 2014 accreditation renewal, as well as the 2018 halfway check-in visit.

Institutions are evaluated on five criterias with 18 total subsections, based on HLC’s standard of quality. The criterias are labeled as:

1. Mission — The institution’s mission is clear and articulated publicly; it guides the institution’s operations.

2. Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct — The institution acts with integrity; its conduct is ethical and responsible.

3. Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support — The institution provides quality education, wherever and however its offerings are delivered.

4. Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Improvement — The institution demonstrates responsibility for the quality of its educational programs, learning environments, and support services, and it evaluates their effectiveness for student learning through processes designed to promote continuous improvement.

5. Institutional Effectiveness, Resources and Planning — The institution’s resources, structures, processes and planning are sufficient to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its educational offerings, and respond to future challenges and opportunities.

The visit takes about 15 months of preparation, where SMSU works to put together the assurance argument that the HLC reviews beforehand, which is to be submitted a month before the visit.

“In an institution’s report (the assurance argument), they have to provide narrative with supporting evidence to demonstrate that they’ve met expectations in all areas of review,” Wastvedt said. “That’s the document that the review team looks at. When they’re on campus, they ask follow-up questions and have conversations with a variety of different groups of people to confirm the accuracy of what was in the written report, and then provide supplemental evidence.”

The HLC visit brought in a team of five reviewers, which Wastvedt said is a typical number, one of which is the team chair.

Results can take up to six months, and SMSU is projected to hear back sometime in the spring. The HLC first sends an initial evaluation report to the college to review and fact check before it goes to the HLC’s higher-ups for final decision making.

“They (HLC) provide an evaluation report to us after a few weeks after their visit. With that evaluation report, we check it for errors of fact,” Wastvedt said. “Then, it goes eventually to the HLC governing body, the IAC (Institutional Action Committee), … They review the report and then they make the final determination.”

If an institution does not fully pass the evaluation, it is given a grace period to make improvements.

“If you receive “met with concern,” then that’s accompanied by requirements for what the institution needs to do to follow up and address the needs that were identified,” Wastvedt said. “That’s called a monitoring report. Typically, institutions have two years to respond and complete the work needed to fulfill the monitoring report requirements.”

The HLC spends time with community members and students during its visit as well, without SMSU Cabinet leadership there, to get insight from the public on the university’s operations.

“They’re eager for evidence, and sometimes they’re looking to fill in gaps or answer real questions they have, but they’re just looking for additional confirmation of things,” Wastvedt said. “We had a great turnout.”

Although results will not come for a string of months, Wastvedt detailed he feels hopeful about how the evaluation went based off of closing conversations with the agency at the end of the visit.