Dear Colleagues:

This past term, we have reflected on the first forty years of our institution—on where we have been and where we should go from here. There is really nothing magical about round numbers of years, but human beings like to measure things in that way, and once every ten years our University faces a different kind of measurement—a comprehensive review by our accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission.

Accreditation is one of the hallmarks of American higher education. It is a process that can produce enormously positive and helpful results for our University and for those we serve. The University’s self-study report—developed in anticipation of a visit by a team of academics and administrators from peer institutions, scheduled for March 8-10, 2004—represents the contribution of insights, ideas and information from many, and the painstaking and scrupulous synthesis of this data by a few. Thank you to all who participated in this process.

Unlike the nine other program-specific accreditations earned by our colleges, this review process has asked us to look at the University at-large. It has required us, and given us the occasion and the opportunity, to examine virtually every aspect of our institution and to make our own critical judgments as to how we are performing and where we should improve. Now that we have completed our Self-Study, these judgments will be assessed with the perspective of outside evaluators, who will read this report prior to visiting the campus to see for themselves what has been accomplished since the last Self-Study in 1994.

Since then, SVSU has grown and changed in ways that are both dramatic and subtle. We are now a more mature institution with higher quality academic and support programs, solid enrollment growth, and a stable financial base that should allow us, albeit with sacrifice, to weather Michigan’s current economic storms. We have enhanced our reputation as an institution of opportunity and choice and are playing an ever-greater role as a cultural and intellectual resource for the citizens of East-Central Michigan. And as this Self-Study report demonstrates, the University meets all the “General Institutional Requirements" and "Criteria for Accreditation” and has made significant progress in addressing areas of concern cited by the 1994 evaluation team.

This Self-Study reflects the University’s maturation in a number of other ways—not the least of which is the addition of this website to the traditional print documents. This use of current technology will allow more University stakeholders than ever before to review the Self-Study findings; it will also aid the visiting team and serve as a foundation on which continuing Self-Study and assessment can be built.

And yet a great deal remains to be done. Our current re-accreditation effort coincides with the culmination of our most recent five-year planning cycle represented in Next Steps 2000-2005, which figures so prominently in this Self-Study report. Our challenge beyond Next Steps will be to consolidate the gains of the past forty years and continue to make SVSU an institution of which we can be proud.

Best regards,

Eric R. Gilbertson