Lake Tahoe Community College accreditation status reaffirmed

Lake Tahoe Community College received notice today from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges accrediting commission that the college's accreditation is being reaffirmed.

The college hosted a visiting team from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) in October 2011. The team, composed of 10 California Community College colleagues from all areas of the system, was on campus to evaluate the college on its overall educational quality and effectiveness. Accreditation is a voluntary system of self regulation and colleges must reaffirm their accreditation status every six years.

"This speaks well of the quality of the college's faculty, staff, managers, and board of trustees who have continued to ensure the success of our students, and the community through several challenging years," said Kindred Murillo, LTCC president.

The ACCJC is requiring LTCC to submit a follow-up report by Oct. 15, 2012 to demonstrate that it has addressed the commission's five recommendations. The recommendations included: continuing LTCC's current planning effort using the new Educational Master Plan to drive the technology, facility and human resources plans; adding more quantitative measurements to the college's documents to help with assessment of how well the college is meeting its objectives; building on the work done in course student learning outcomes (SLO) and accelerate the SLO assessment processes for programs and institution outcomes to meet the Fall 2012 accreditation requirements; consistently and formally evaluate all of the college¹s core systems and processes, including governance, budgeting, communication, planning, and decision-making; and finally the college needs to analyze staffing in the administration area and make sure the president¹s job does not include one-third of the VP of Business responsibility, which is a requirement for Accreditation Standard IV.

In its letter the commission also noted concern for the potential loss of income resulting from the end of the Good Neighbor Policy between California and Nevada. The commission wants LTCC to provide information on the effect of this policy change on college enrollments and revenues and the college's financial and enrollment management plans for addressing any effects.

"The recommendations are no surprise to the college constituents, and we have already made significant progress toward addressing many of the recommendations," Murillo said.

— Christina Proctor is the public information officer for Lake Tahoe Community College. She can be reached at proctor@ltcc.edu.