This week, the seven self-study working groups, each assigned to one of Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s (MSCHE) standards of accreditation, are submitting their first chapter drafts of the self-study report before breaking for the winter holiday. Chapters are formed based on Penn State’s Self-Study Design, which was approved by MSCHE last May, and contain evidence of compliance with each group’s assigned standard of accreditation. Chapter drafts are submitted to the self-study steering committee co-chairs, Lance Kennedy-Phillips, vice provost for Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research and the University’s accreditation liaison officer, and David Callejo Pérez, associate vice president and senior associate dean for academic programs with the Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses.
The co-chairs, along with Marie Sullivan, the University’s director of accreditation and a group of secondary readers will review chapter drafts between now and February 2023 and return to working groups with feedback for any needed revisions. Groups will then have until the end of March to submit second chapter drafts for review and feedback in late April.
Final chapter reports will be submitted in May. Over the summer, the draft self-study report will be made available to the University community for additional feedback, with final revisions based on community feedback made in September/October. The final draft report will be forwarded to the chair of the MSCHE evaluation team in October/November. The final self-study report, which will include revisions based on feedback from the team chair, will be shared with the University community in December. A complete timeline of the process can be found on the self-study website.