Accreditation team checks on UNLV

Jace Radke

Friday, April 28, 2000 | 12:19 p.m.

Piles of paperwork and stacks of boxes were the greeting Wednesday for the 15-member team responsible for recommending whether UNLV should be reaccredited.

The team was scheduled to be at UNLV through today conducting interviews and looking into all facets of the university as part of the accreditation process, University of Montana president and team chairman George Dennison said.

"Every day at 4 p.m. we have marathon sessions where we go over and over what we've learned and pinpoint what we need to probe further," Dennison said. "We have all pretty much committed the university's 300-page institutional self study to memory, and that's our starting point."

Dennison said that the team will determine if UNLV's self evaluation is accurate and is also looking at the university's governance, administration, mission statement, strategic plan, resources, facilities and assess the effectiveness of the university's programs.

The team's recommendations will be passed on to the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, which will make a decision on whether UNLV will be reaccredited in June.

A draft copy of the report will also be sent to UNLV President Carol Harter, but other than that the team's findings will be kept confidential until after the association makes a decision, Dennison said.

Universities must undergo the reaccreditation process once every 10 years, Dennison said.

On Thursday the team held forums for students, staff, faculty and the general public looking for comment on the university.

Judy Belanger, UNLV director of financial services, among the staffers who attended the forum, said she felt the university's image was expanding.

"I've been here nine years, and it used to be that my colleagues nationally would always ask about the basketball team," Belanger said. "But now I'm being asked about our new library or a new experiment. The university seems to be doing a good job communicating what we are doing nationally."