Administration must work to please HLC

UCA has taken several steps in the right direction for its future, but must do more if the university is to keep its accreditation in the long term. If UCA administration wants to tell students to work hard and do the best they can in school, they must do everything they can to make UCA the best school they can.
In 2010, UCA had its accreditation reaffirmed for seven years by the Higher Learning Commission. While the normal accreditation is ten years for a university, UCA was accredited for three less years because of several issues that the Higher Learning Commission had with how things were run.
The financial problems UCA had after Lu Hardin resigned were a large part of the HLC’s decision to accredit UCA for a limited term. Communication problems with administration were also cited as problem areas by the HLC.
Since UCA’s first HLC warning in 2010, UCA has adopted a strategic plan to try and work on the areas that were lacking. At the Jan. 23 UCA Board of Trustees meeting, the HLC announced the findings of its report on the status of UCA’s reaccreditation. The HLC reaccredited UCA for seven years again, but said that more steps needed to be taken for UCA to be reaccredited for the full term by 2014.
UCA students work hard to do well in school, so administration needs to work hard to make absolutely sure UCA stays accredited. If accreditation is lost, UCA will lose access to federal aid for students and it will lower the worth of a degree from the university.
In May 2011, the UCA Board of Trustees adopted a plan to deal with the problems the HLC had with UCA. The plan, which can be read online at uca.edu/strategicplan, outlines areas that the university needs to improve to recieve full accreditation in 2014.
The news is not all bad for the university, though. While UCA does still have problems in these areas, the HLC report said the university has taken steps in the right direction for getting full accreditation. The new administration headed by UCA President Tom Courtway seems to take every aspect of this report seriously. They have implemented several ways to make UCA a more respected university.
To deal with the communication problems the HLC pointed out, the monthly “campus talks” with Courtway and other top administrators at UCA were introduced.
These events are a great way for UCA to show its intent to get back on track to students and faculty. They increase Courtway’s presence on campus as well as give administration a chance to show it is serious about changing its relationship with the campus for the better. This is a welcome improvement and should be continued into the forseeable future.
In addition to the more widely seen and attended campus talks, UCA has also added a Vice President for Student Enrollment, Robert Parrent, who helps with recruitment, retention and graduation rates.
The university also hired a company to look at ways to improve the way UCA communicates with prospective students with its website and social networks.
Both of these new hires can help UCA on its way to getting full reaccreditation as long as the university’s administration continues to work at it.
If UCA’s administration works as hard on accreditation problems as its students work on schoolwork, then the problems can be solved surprisingly fast.