SCTC GRANTED ACCREDIDATION
October 8, 2007
SCTC Accreditation Update: submitted by SCTC President Karen Radell
The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College has completed the final stage in its quest for initial accreditation. On Monday, September 24th , the President, Dr. Karen Radell, accompanied by the Dean of Instruction and Student Services, Carla Sineway, and Laura Gregg, English faculty and Self-study Coordinator, traveled to Chicago to appear before a review committee of the Higher Learning Commission. After an hour of question and answer, the review committee informed SCTC’s institutional representatives that the college had indeed satisfied the core requirements for initial accreditation and that congratulations were in order. Members of the review committee commented that they felt SCTC’s self-study was both thoughtful and well-written; the Dean of Academics at Little Priest Tribal College noted that our self-study “should be a model for other tribal colleges.”
There was a celebration of the achievement of initial accreditation by SCTC hosted by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe on Friday, October 12, 2007, at Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways from 11 am to 1 pm. We are grateful to all who joined us as we marked a significant milestone in the history of the college.
Although we have just cause for celebration, the staff and faculty are already into the next cycle of accreditation activity. In less than five years, we will have to send another self-study to the Higher Learning Commission and prepare for another site visit, and in two years, in 2009, we will have to submit a monitoring report on institutional strategic planning. In the meantime, however, SCTC has begun to address some of the issues raised in the Report of a Visit prepared by the site visit team and sent to us in August by the Higher Learning Commission. We know that there is still much to accomplish in the future—we are prepared to meet both the challenges and the opportunities as they present themselves.
