Accreditation Visit Nov. 2-5, 1997
On Campus Story
Oct. 27, 1997
by Wayne Danielson
The Universitywide accreditation committee scheduled to visit the University Nov. 2-5 will study reports quite different from those considered10 years ago when the University was last accredited. One new report is an alternate model strategic study on "Information Technology and the Future of The University," a topic that although important a decade ago has assumed major importance in the '90s. UT Austin now spends $67 million annually on information technology - about 8 percent of all expenditures - and the figure increases annually. The UT report says that the University now has more personal computers on line than it has telephones.
Although the University has no "paperless" offices, more and more of its operations are handled electronically. The long lines that used to plague students are now largely gone. Students use information technology to seek admission, to register for courses, to drop and add, to find books in the library, to read journals, to deliver papers to their professors, to form study groups, to get degree checks, and to write home to mom and dad for more money. About 80 percent of UT students report that they have personal access to a computer, and about 70 percent say they were on the internet "last week."
A team of consultants headed by Robert C. (Bob) Heterick, Jr.,
president and CEO of EDUCOM and vice president emeritus of Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, will look at UT's information technology
system in detail and offer suggestions for improvements.
A second new report the visiting team will encounter concerns University athletics. This report will be examined by a joint committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (UT's overall accrediting body) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association. The Committee will examine in depth UT's performance in four areas: governance and commitment to rules compliance, academic integrity, fiscal integrity, and commitment to equity. UT's report, which with the other reports may be seen on the Web at
http://www.utexas.edu/provost/planning/assessment/accred/
features 31 complex tables that required weeks to assemble and check for accuracy. The visiting committee on athletics will be headed by Richard Eakin, chancellor of East Carolina University.
The traditional compliance report, which deals with the ability to offer programs of high quality to its students, has changed over the years as well. Although still the largest of the reports at 264 pages, it has been streamlined and now deals in greater detail with how the University measures its effectiveness and how closely it follows the dictates of its basic mission statement. Joseph E. Johnson, president of the University of Tennesse, head of the overall visiting committee, will also head the group studying the University's compliance report. The committee will be co-chaired by Catherine Maley, professor of romance languages at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The committee is expected to issue an informal oral report on its findings to President Peter T. Flawn on Nov. 5, followed by a formal written report in December. After opportunities are provided for corrections to be made, the report will be voted on by the Commission on Colleges in late spring 1998.
Individuals with additional questions may reach Danielson at (512)
471-1996 or write: wayne@mail.utexas.edu
