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Well we received word right before the New Year that we had received maintenance of accreditation.
There are about 650 schools internationally with the AAC accreditation. Just under 500
of those within the United States. We actually hold dual accreditation in business and accounting,
which is a little bit higher standard, and there are I believe 167 schools in the United
States who hold that dual accreditation. Well it’s a multi year process to gain initial
accreditation so it’s a long process that we’ve been in for many years. And then once
you have earned accreditation you go in a five-year cycle so every five years you have
to prove that you are maintaining and upholding the standards of the ACSB. There are three
basic areas that the standards address. Strategic management faculty credentials faculty qualifications
and assurance of learning and assessment. And in all three areas we received green lights.
They were pleased with what they saw. The peer review team that visited. The AAC board
of directors concurred. Some of the things that they really liked was the fact we have
a broad strategic planning process we have a lot of input from our stakeholders that
drive our mission and what we do and ensure an environment of student success. They were
especially impressed with our faculty credentials. In fact one of the reviewers said that we
had the most collegial and most student friendly faculty he had ever seen. And I think that
showed when they interviewed the students and were very impressed with how the students
viewed their environment. And the fact that we have been committed to a process that ensures
learning takes place and that we are assessing how our students perform in the classroom
and we use that as feedback to drive our curricular innovation. AACSB is looking for continuous
improvement a commitment to continuous improvement. That was one of the things that they stated
to us in their report that we were obviously committed to not only doing what we have to
do to be accredited but that we are always seeking to become better. Certainly in business
and accounting they saw that. Accounting they saw some dramatic increases. They were very
impressed with the leadership in accounting both in the graduate and undergraduate level.
They thought that we had one of the best assessment of assurance of learning processes for student
learning that they had ever seen. And they were very impressed with the use of technology
that had seen. So they outlined some commendable practices in accounting that way. In our case
was one of the very special things was that they actually listened to effective practices.
And the way it works with AACSB is that effective practices are promoted to other business schools
as ways to seek continuous improvement. So the business honors house that we have instituted.
Our living learning environment and also our base center. Business academic success excellent
student success center where we try to create an environment where our students can succeed
and find help when they need tutoring services private study groups. They held out those
two particular practices we instituted as effective practices that other business schools
throughout the world should look at. When you have the faculty and staff that we have
that are committed to student excellence. They’re committed to students and their
success they’re committed to their profession. They’re committed to advancing the knowledge
base. It comes down to having the faculty and staff that are committed as ours are.