The university’s reaccreditation process has hit another major milestone, with three of the four criterion committees having submitted their respective draft documents. One additional criterion committee will be submitted by April 17th. We thank all criterion committee members for their work over the past year and a half. Editing has begun and includes putting the document into one voice, verifying and adding evidence documents, and reducing content to meet the 35,000 word limit. Work by the Federal Compliance committee continues through July to complete that report.
Next week, the required Student Survey will be sent to all current degree-seeking students. The survey will be open from April 13-22 and we urge students to participate. The survey is developed and hosted by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the university’s accreditor, and all responses go directly to HLC for their review. Students will receive an email (from IE@smumn.edu) with a message from the Saint Mary’s president, Father James P. Burns, IVD, with the link to the survey. All responses are anonymous and results will be shared with the institution about a month prior to the team visit. If you have any questions, please send those to Tracy Lehnertz, Reaccreditation Coordinator at tlehnert@smumn.edu.
Information about the reaccreditation process is available on the Reaccreditation 2024-2026 webpage (login required) linked from the Academic Affairs internal webpage.
Reminder to the university community that the HLC on-site visit is October 26 & 27, 2026. Mark your calendars now.
