Introduction to the current self-study

Every ten years Mary Washington College conducts a self-study to assure that it meets the criteria for accreditation set by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (COC-SACS). At the end of the study we are visited by a team assembled by COC-SACS to review the study and make recommendations about re-accreditation. In accord with our accreditation cycle, a visiting committee from COC-SACS will conduct a review of our efforts in the Spring of 2003.

Recently COC-SACS has introduced a new approach to the "self-study" allowing institutions preparing for re-accreditation to focus the self-study on a strategic topic of importance to the school. We have chosen to take advantage of this opportunity to explore the changes called for by the addition, and the anticipated growth of the Stafford Campus -- the James Monroe Center for Graduate and Professional Studies.

Roughly 80 people, including faculty, administrators, students, alumni and members of the regional community, are involved in a variety of committees studying the changes called for by the addition of the second campus. Surveys and focus groups have been used to involve faculty, students, prospective students, alumni, as well as local community and business leaders in the self-study.