In its letter formalizing the action, WSCUC highlighted students’ strong commitment to the environment and social justice as well as the close connections between students and faculty mentors. The letter commended the University for a number of efforts and made a series of recommendations for enhancing student success.
HSU President Lisa Rossbacher and Interim Vice Provost Rock Braithwaite, who serves as HSU’s accreditation liaison officer, shared the news in a message to campus.
“With this action, WSCUC recognizes the important opportunities that HSU provides students and the quality of an HSU education,” they wrote. “We can all be very proud of this reaffirmation, and we’re thankful for all the hard work on this process by countless individuals across campus.”
The letter from WSCUC commended HSU in five specific areas, including: recruitment efforts that reflect growing diversity in California, shared educational objectives, strength of academic programs, aligning co-curricular programs with academic goals, and institutional research capacity combined with use of the data.
WSCUC also made recommendations to further enhance student success, including: evaluating support services to ensure the needs of a diverse student body are being met, better informing prospective students of HSU’s rural context, expanding leadership’s communication strategies on campus, implementing a comprehensive university assessment program, increasing diversity of faculty and staff to reflect student demographics, and a clear focus on a sustainable budgeting process and enrollment management.
WSCUC is a regional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as certifying institutional eligibility for federal funding in a number of programs, including student access to federal financial aid. WSCUC encourages continuous improvement and assures constituencies, including the public, that accredited institutions are fulfilling their missions.
HSU’s letter from WSCUC completes a multi-year process that involved a review of data from across campus as well as evaluation of important University priorities. There were multiple visits to campus by WSCUC teams. Looking ahead, there will be a visit by a WSCUC team in 2021 to specifically address progress on budget, enrollment, diversification of revenue, and University-wide assessment. An offsite review for the next reaffirmation will be in Fall 2025 followed by an accreditation visit in Spring 2026.