Cerritos College will be going through an Accreditation site visit, where 12 members of other colleges will come to the campus to evaluate Cerritos College on different areas.
JoAnna Schilling, vice president of academic affairs, described Accreditation as a “A voluntary system of self-regulation developed to evaluate overall educational quality and institutional effectiveness at our institution (Cerritos College).”
The team may be visiting Cerritos College, but the Accreditation comes from a group called The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACCJC/WASC).
The site visit will take place from March 3 to March 6, with two open forums taking place in the Teleconference Center on March 4 at 11 a.m., and March 5 at 2:30 p.m.
The exit meeting takes place on March 6 at 11 a.m. in the Teleconference Center in Room LC155.
The last time an Accreditation team visited Cerritos College was in 2008 when the college was issued a warning.
Cerritos College President Linda Lacy said that after being issued this warning the college was asked to take care of some integrative planning and communication problems.
The warning was lifted in 2010 after Cerritos College addressed the issues.
Lacy feels that Cerritos College is in good shape for the upcoming Accreditation visit.
“It’s nice to have an outside group come in and look at you and say ‘perhaps you can do this better.’”
She explained what the team members would be doing once they arrive to Cerritos College for this year’s visit.
“We’ll do a tour, so they can be familiar with the buildings and locations. They have what they call a team meeting room. That’s going to be assigned in the Auto Partners Building. So they’ll pretty much set up their base camp there.”
The team members will not just be looking at buildings and different locations, they also may speak to some students as well.
Lance Makinano, student trustee, said that if an Accreditation member speaks to a student, it is best if the student is just honest with the member about what is going on at Cerritos College.
Lacy said that the team members would also go to different classrooms and meetings.
“They’ll go to a Board of Trustees meeting … all the time they’ll be asking questions, answering questions and writing the report.”
Associated Students of Cerritos College vice president Aldemar Sanchez is positive about the visit.
He said that Cerritos College has been working on getting prepared for the Accreditation for a while.
“Our student government is really good, our faculty and staff are amazing, they’re going to pass with flying colors,” Sanchez said.
For more information visit http://www.cerritos.edu/2014visit
