DAYBREAK - UCSF Receives WASC Accreditation through 2009

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1st appeared 29 September 1999

UCSF Receives WASC Accreditation through 2009

UCSF recently received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC) through 2009, an important achievement that reaffirmed the University’s commitment to academic excellence and focused attention on how it can do better.

The WASC Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities approved the accreditation following an extensive review process that involved a site visit and report by an external evaluation team and -- for the first time -- an internal study prepared by UCSF itself. The self-study was conducted with broad consultation and input from faculty and staff under the direction of accreditation liaison officer Clifford Attkisson, associate vice chancellor of student academic affairs and dean of the Graduate Division.

"[UCSF] has a well-deserved reputation as a premier academic health sciences center," the evaluation team concluded. "By all criteria, it is providing outstanding education to graduate and professional students, it is doing world-class research, delivering first-class health care and making significant contributions to public service."

Since the last WASC accreditation visit in 1986, UCSF has seen major changes, including its affiliation with Mount Zion, the creation of UCSF Stanford Health Care and selection of Mission Bay as the site for a new research campus. While acknowledging a variety of concerns and problems at UCSF, the evaluation team concluded, "If past history is a guide, there is every reason to believe that UCSF will continue to flourish and prosper."

The evaluation team, chaired by Paul H. Silverman, executive director of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, made six recommendations. Chief among them:

expand efforts to create community support for Mission Bay and other UCSF sites;

boost fund-raising efforts to increase the number of endowed chairs and to meet construction needs at Mission Bay and Parnassus Heights campuses;

enhance support for the academic infrastructure and graduate student needs to strengthen the Center for Health and Community and other social science programs; and

ensure that the UCSF Stanford merger supports academic programs and enjoys faculty support.

The team report identified many strengths of UCSF, such as the extraordinary quality and diversity of UCSF students; excellence of its faculty and staff; vitality of shared governance allowing faculty to participate fully and meaningfully in campus planning and decision-making; and campus leaders’ demonstrated commitment to graduate academic education.

Tackling Challenges

The team report also recognized several significant challenges facing UCSF, most of which fall into three broad categories: student support, academic program support and institutional challenges. The challenges identified include:

Providing students access to high-quality health care services and adequate housing near campus;

Attaining academic integration across the major campus sites;

Ensuring that library collections keep pace with academic need;

Balancing the revitalization needs of Parnassus with the resource demands required to construct and staff the Mission Bay campus; and

Ensuring that UCSF Stanford continues to serve well the educational programs in all schools and the Graduate Division.

"As for the challenges facing UCSF, the team report aptly concludes that ‘the concerns and problems that UCSF faces are ones that have been created by its own success,’" said Chancellor Mike Bishop. "There is no doubt in my mind as the Chancellor that UCSF has a bright future ahead -- as we strive to fulfill our four missions of education, research, patient care, and public service."

Campus leaders are making every possible effort to respond constructively to the challenges identified by the WASC visit team. Regarding housing for students, UCSF has already provided additional off campus housing at the Presidio and Treasure Island. In addition, UCSF is studying the feasibility of building up to 300 units of student housing at Mission Bay. As far as student health is concerned, UCSF is engaged in a self-study process to secure accreditation for the new Student Health Center.

"Over the past two years Student Health has revitalized its program of services, increased benefits to students, and reorganized the service including the addition of new staff, nurses, and physicians -- as well as appointments of a new director and a student health plan manager," Attkisson noted.

He also acknowledged that the Mission Bay planning is being undertaken in "full appreciation of the need to plan and finance revitalization of the Parnassus campus" and that UCSF continues to address the challenges involved in establishing and maintaining academic integration across all major campus sites.

As for library improvements, Attkisson said an Information Technology Strategic Planning Steering Committee is working with the library leadership to evaluate the needs and will draft and implement a strategic plan for information technology improvements at the library. In addition, there is ongoing consideration of the adequacy of library holdings and planning related to providing library services at each major campus site.

An Experiment

The University and WASC agreed to participate in an experimental self-study that looked at important issues and analytic measures to consider educational excellence. The WASC is developing new accreditation models that align self-studies more directly with institutional priorities so that the process contributes to institutional improvement by allowing the campus community to reflect on educational effectiveness at the institution.

For its part, UCSF provided a series of reports, including:

a "Data Portfolio" of information about students, faculty, staff, and academic programs;

an "Essay on the Strategic Position of the University";

analytical reports that focused on indices of academic excellence and institutional quality assurance; and

an extensive report on campus graduate academic programs that included data on time to degree and student placement following graduation.

These documents and other campus data are available for review at http://saawww.ucsf.edu/institutional/welcome.htm. The website is maintained and updated by Ashish Sahni, director of Office of Institutional Research.

By taking a more holistic approach to demonstrate its educational progress and public accountability, UCSF was spared from merely tracking its compliance with more than 17 major accreditation standards and more than 200 sub-standards.

"The result of this process for UCSF was a more pleasant and productive process that cost far less than expended by peer UC campuses and other colleges and universities in the WASC region," says Attkisson.

"Beyond the economies realized," Attkisson says, "the process used for the self-assessment and team visit was a productive strategy for UCSF. Faculty, campus leaders, staff, and students expressed positive regard for the process. The reports and materials documenting the self-assessment were valued by the campus community and a significant level of ‘campus authorship’ of the self-study materials was achieved. These positive campus-wide responses seem primarily due to the fact that the campus self- study focused on themes and topics that are generally recognized as having importance to the maintenance of academic program quality."

UCSF will submit a progress report in March 2003 on the major recommendations before the next comprehensive visit in spring 2009.

Links:

UCSF WASC Accreditation

UCSF Graduate Division