1. Welcome to Bulle-TEN, a ten-issue newsletter designed to help you prepare for UMKC’s Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation comprehensive evaluation and institutional site visit. Each issue will consist of ten bits of information, announcements, resources, and invitations to participate.
2. Mark your calendars for the institutional site visit, December 2 and 3, 2019. As the visit nears, HLC Co-Chairs will make specific requests for meetings and/or serving as a resource.
3. What is HLC and why does it matter? Come find out at 1 of 2 town hall events. 1) Wednesday, March 6 in Pierson Auditorium from 2 to 3:30 p.m. 2) Thursday, May 2 in the Health Sciences Building, Room 4301, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.
4. Student success is a shared responsibility. Come to one of three forums to learn more about the student success model and help name it. 1) Wednesday, February 27: Volker Campus, Student Union, Room 401AD, 3-4 p.m. 2) Thursday, February 28: Volker Campus, Student Union, Room 401AD, 8:30-9:30 a.m. 3) Friday, March 8, Student Success Model (Rescheduled from 2/20) – Health Sciences Campus HSB #3301.
5. It’s never too early to tidy your website. Around April, HLC will begin identifying the peer review team who will conduct our site visit in December. The first thing peer reviewers will do is visit our website. Please help out by making sure your website is up-to-date.
6. Website search woes. While on the topic of the UMKC website, MCOMM will be promoting specific URLs and search terms so that the latest pages and most accurate information comes to the top of the search. If there are pages that you have difficulty finding, please let Alexis know by completing this online form.
7. Members of the HLC Criterion Committees are currently revising assurance arguments. They may be contacting you for evidence such as meeting summaries or reports. Upcoming due date for revised assurance argument: April 1, 2019
8. Resource: HLC’s Assumed Practices. “Foundational to the Criteria and Core Components is a set of practices shared by institutions of higher education in the United States. Unlike Criteria and Core Components, these Assumed Practices are (1) generally matters to be determined as facts, rather than matters requiring professional judgment and (2) unlikely to vary by institutional mission or context.”
9. Resource: HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation.  HLC has 5 criteria and federal compliance against which the peer reviewers will evaluate UMKC. For over a year now, committee work groups have been reviewing the criteria and preparing an assurance argument based on evidence.
10. Resource: UMKC Accreditation website.

Thank you,

HLC Co-Chairs: Cindy Pemberton, PhD and Ken Novak, PhD

HLC Lead Assurance Argument Writer: Alexis Petri, EdD

issue 1. tags: hlc, umkc website, student success, resources