Dear Colleagues:
The University at Albany is beginning its reaccreditation process with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). This two-year process involves several steps, the first of which is developing our self-study over the course of the 2025-26 academic year.
I write today to invite you to join one of the seven workgroups that will help draft our self-study. Producing an effective self-study depends on strong participation from the campus community and your expertise and experience is vital to our success.
Workgroups will be established for each of the seven Standards for Accreditation that MSCHE uses to evaluate college and university self-studies (listed below). If you would like to serve on a workgroup or nominate a colleague to serve, please contact the President’s Office at [email protected] by Monday, June 30, 2025. Please also indicate your first and second choice of workgroup. An FAQ is attached with additional details about the workgroups.
Other steps of the accreditation process include a broad-based campus-wide consultation in fall 2026 as we revise and fine-tune our self-study, followed by a visit from an external review team in fall 2027.
I would like to thank Dr. Erin Bell, Dean of the College of Integrated Health Sciences, and Dr. Christine Wagner, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, who will serve as co-chairs of our MSCHE Steering Committee for their leadership.
With our robust strategic plan in hand and many powerful initiatives under development, I believe we are in a very strong position to create a meaningful accreditation self-study that will also be extremely useful as we strive to achieve excellence in all that we do.
Thank you for participating in this process—and for all you will continue to do as we work toward reaching our full potential as a leading public research institution.
Sincerely,
Havidán Rodríguez
President
MIDDLE STATES COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION (MSCHE) ACCREDITATION STANDARDS
Standard I: Mission and Goals
The institution’s mission defines its purpose within the context of higher education, the students it serves, and what it intends to accomplish. The institution’s stated goals are clearly linked to its mission and specify how the institution fulfills its mission.
Standard II: Ethics and Integrity
Ethics and integrity are central, indispensable, and defining hallmarks of effective higher education institutions. In all activities, whether internal or external, an institution must be faithful to its mission, honor its contracts and commitments, adhere to its policies, and represent itself truthfully.
Standard III: Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience
An institution provides students with learning experiences that are characterized by rigor and coherence at all program, certificate, and degree levels, regardless of instructional modality. All learning experiences, regardless of modality, program pace/schedule, level, and setting are consistent with higher education expectations.
Standard IV: Support of the Student Experience
Across all educational experiences, settings, levels, and instructional modalities, the institution recruits and admits students whose interests, abilities, experiences, and goals are congruent with its mission and educational offerings. The institution commits to student retention, persistence, completion, and success through a coherent and effective support system sustained by qualified professionals, which enhances the quality of the learning environment, contributes to the educational experience, and fosters student success.
Standard V: Educational Effectiveness Assessment
Assessment of student learning and achievement demonstrates that the institution’s students have accomplished educational goals consistent with their program of study, degree level, the institution’s mission, and appropriate expectations for institutions of higher education.
Standard VI: Planning, Resources, and Institutional Improvement
The institution’s planning processes, resources, and structures are aligned with each other and are sufficient to fulfill its mission and goals, to continuously assess and improve its programs and services, and to respond effectively to opportunities and challenges.
Standard VII: Governance, Leadership, and Administration
The institution is governed and administered in a manner that allows it to realize its stated mission and goals in a way that effectively benefits the institution, its students, and the other constituencies it serves. Even when supported by or affiliated with a related entity, the institution has education as its primary purpose, and it operates as an academic institution with appropriate autonomy.