Peer Evaluation Team to Visit EWU

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) will visit campus on Tuesday, Oct. 15, to conduct an ad-hoc site visit.

NWCCU is EWU’s institutional accreditor, responsible for assuring stakeholders that an NWCCU-accredited institution has been rigorously evaluated and meets or exceeds the criteria required to maintain accreditation. (You can view the NWCCU Standard for accreditation online.)

The Oct. 15 ad-hoc site visit will address the recommendations received during EWU’s fall 2022 Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness site visit. The NWCCU peer evaluation team will be meeting with committees and groups of EWU staff and faculty to evaluate how the university has made progress on the three recommendations being reviewed.

What is a recommendation? Based on the standards for accreditation defined by NWCCU, peer evaluators will identify areas that institutions can improve upon. Peer evaluation is a healthy process in which an external perspective is provided to aid in institutional effectiveness.

Specifically, these three recommendations will be reviewed:

Recommendation 1: Fall 2022 Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness – Demonstrate a continuous process to assess institutional effectiveness relative to the institution’s priorities. This includes a system by which data is collected, reviewed, used to inform decision making, and utilized for allocating resources across the entire institution in a cohesive manner. (2020 Standard(s) 1.B.1;1.B.2;1.B.3; 2.E.2)

Recommendation 3: Fall 2022 Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness – Make publicly available select disaggregated indicators of student achievement that are clearly and systematically integrated into the assessment of institutional effectiveness. (2020 Standard(s) 1.D.3)

Recommendation 4: Fall 2022 Evaluation of Institutional Effectiveness – Review the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in academic units, Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Student Affairs with a goal to reduce redundancy and increase support designed to close equity gaps. (2020 Standard(s) 1.D.4)

Please be on the lookout for, and welcome, our peer evaluation team, which includes Dr. Karen Carey, chancellor (retired) University of Alaska Southeast, and Dr. Carina Niedermier Beck, vice provost, Allen Yarnell Center for Student Success of Montana State University, Bozeman.

You can view the Ad-Hoc report submitted to NWCCU in advance of the upcoming site by going online.

Please contact Jake Morrison with any questions at jmorrison10@ewu.edu or 509.359.6564.