Middle States Accreditation

Dear Members of the Skidmore Community,

I write to share with you the positive news we have recently received from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE): our reaccreditation has been formally confirmed, and we have been commended publicly on the quality of our self-study process. Many of you were present when the visiting team read their report to us on March 9. It contained a long list of compliments. It also contained some recommendations. We are pleased to say that those recommendations, while a permanent part of their report, are not public, and do not result in a compulsory follow-up before our next self-study process.

This result places us in a small group of colleges who have been commended for our work. Of the 46 colleges and universities that underwent reaccreditation last year, 33 must follow up to document improvements; the Commission commended only 13 others—Skidmore among them—in the self-study process, while reaffirming accreditation without any required monitoring or progress report.

We can be proud of our accreditation process and of all that we are doing in support of excellence at Skidmore. The requirements for accreditation have changed in recent years, and will continue to change; in particular, the MSCHE now requires much more transparency and accountability. We will need to continue to strengthen the ways in which we can demonstrate our commitment to our students’ learning and to decision-making that is based on the best-available evidence. But we can say now with pride that we excel at what we do, and that we have been recognized publicly for our efforts.

For your information, here is a website link to the MSCHE action.

Once again, I especially want to thank Skidmore’s Middle States Steering Committee, the members of the Working Groups that drafted the self-study, and all of you who participated in the reaccreditation process and made it so successful. Most importantly, I thank you for all that you continue to do, day in and day out, that makes Skidmore the extraordinary college that it is.