Message from the President

10-8-2007

Dear Colleagues,

The Accreditation Steering Committee is urging all members of the Central Ohio Technical College community to read the draft criterion chapters of the College's self-study report and pass along their feedback.

The college-wide review period will be a two-week period running from October 8th through October 18th. During this period, you are invited to review and provide feedback on the Self-Study manuscript. The review manuscripts for each of the criterion chapters are available in printed format in the library or online at:

Criterion 1 http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/SelfStudy/Attachments/Selfstudy_draft_C1.pdf 
Criterion 2 http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/SelfStudy/Attachments/Selfstudy_draft_C2.pdf
Criterion 3 http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/SelfStudy/Attachments/Selfstudy_draft_C3.pdf 
Criterion 4 http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/SelfStudy/Attachments/Selfstudy_draft_C4.pdf
Criterion 5 http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/SelfStudy/Attachments/Selfstudy_draft_C5.pdf 

You may submit your feedback via any of the following methods:

• Web logs available at http://cotcaccreditationself-studyfeedback.blogspot.com/. 

• Directly to any member of the steering committee (a list of the committee members and their email addresses is available at http://www.cotc.edu/cotc/SelfStudy/steeringcommittees.asp ), or

• Criterion-focused meetings:
  
  Criterion 1 – Tuesday, October 16, 2007 – 3:30 – 4:30 pm - Hopewell 66
  Criterion 2 – Friday, October 12, 2007 – 9:00 – 10:00 am - Founders 1024
  Criterion 3 – Monday, October 15, 2007 - 3:00 - 5:00 pm - Hopewell 66
  Criterion 4 – Monday, October 15, 2007 - 10:00 – 11:30 am - Hopewell 66
  Criterion 5 – Wednesday, October 17, 2007 – 3:00 – 4:00 pm - Hopewell 66
  

COTC has been involved in a comprehensive self-study of our entire institution for the past year and a half. Through this process, the College is examining its success in meeting our mission over the past ten years since our last comprehensive visit. At the same time, the self-study process helps us look forward, complementing our strategic planning process and strengthening our institution’s understanding of how our planning for the future can assure our continuous improvement efforts for academic excellence.

Already the benefits of this self-reflective process are evident. Over the past eighteen months, the College has renewed its efforts and focus on student learning and assessment. Our faculty have played a critical leadership role in moving assessment forward on the College’s agenda and has been successful in building a culture of assessment at our College.

The purpose of the Self-Study is to describe the College, how it functions, what changes have transpired since the last reaccreditation site visit in 1998, and where the institution is headed. As you read and respond to the document, we ask that you consider whether the text generally describes the COTC you know.

The final self-study report that emerges will go to the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association (NCA) in March 2008, as part of the HLC's required ten-year accreditation process. After that, faculty and administrators at other HLC institutions will conduct an on-site evaluation May 12-14, 2008, and make their own report. Individuals and groups will be able to meet with the peer consultant-evaluators then to offer further comments. Finally, the Commission will review both the self-study and evaluation reports to make recommendations about the College’s accreditation status and areas needing improvement.

I am confident that through our Self-Study report and the site visit, the visiting reaccreditation team will have the information they need to understand fully the complex and diverse institution that COTC is and that we are structured to manage the institution responsibly.

Thanks to all of the members of the committees for their time and commitment in developing these review documents and we look forward to your feedback and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Bonnie L. Coe, Ph.D.
President

Jacqueline H. Parrill
Vice President for Institutional Planning & Human Resources Development