Purpose & Goals

To remain accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACSCOC), universities must undergo regular reaffirmation. The last full reaccreditation of JMU was in 2002; our next review and visit will occur in fall 2012 and spring 2013.

The reaffirmation process is designed to ensure that we meet established standards of quality as specified by the SACSCOC criteria. This requires that we, as a university community, evaluate the extent to which we are meeting our educational goals.

There are two main pieces of the reaffirmation process:

Preparation of a compliance certification — documentation that JMU is in compliance with the Core Requirements, the Comprehensive Standards and Federal Requirements.
Development of a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) — a course of action for enhancing educational quality.

The pieces complement each other by allowing the university to ensure we are meeting our goals while allowing us to identify an area of development and growth.

Poster

Goals
In this process, we seek to:

Be comprehensive, assessing every aspect of the institution's operation.
Be broadly participatory, involving the entire university community of faculty, staff and students.
Be analytical and provide a complete critical evaluation of the institution, identifying strengths and weaknesses.
Focus on the planning and evaluation processes of the institution.
Plan for thorough review of the compliance audit and follow up of identified areas.

The goal of the SACSCOC steering committee is that the final compliance report (narrative and documentation/evidence) will:

be well organized, candid and forthright and broadly participatory
present evidence that is reliable, current, verifiable, coherent, objective, relevant and representative

The purpose of this Web site is to:

identify and outline the steps in the reaffirmation process and provide a centralized location of all information related to reaffirmation
highlight the Principles of Accreditation
[http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/2010principlesofacreditation.pdf ]
keep JMU faculty, staff and students updated on the reaffirmation process
allow faculty and staff to contribute to the reaffirmation process by providing feedback

James Madison University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate, masters and doctorate degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call (404) 679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of James Madison University.

The Commission should only be contacted concerning an institution's significant non-compliance with a requirement or standard. Normal inquiries about James Madison University (such as admission requirements, financial aid, education programs, etc.) should be directed to JMU, not the Commission's office.