WESSON – Copiah-Lincoln Community College has become the firstcommunity college in Mississippi to earn accreditation under newguidelines, school officials said.

“We’re extremely excited with this good news,” Co-Lin PresidentDr. Howell Garner said Wednesday after receiving a reaffirmation ofaccreditation letter from the Southern Association of Colleges andSchools (SACS) earlier this week.

Garner said the accreditation means Co-Lin will not besecond-guessing itself on how it is proceeding with educationefforts.

“We know we’re on the right track,” Garner said.

Dean of the College Dr. Ronnie Nettles said the letterrepresents the end of two-year process for the school. Nettlesoversaw the accreditation activities for Co-Lin.

Garner said Co-Lin “broke new ground” as the first communitycollege to go through the new process. He and Nettles said othercommunity colleges have been contacting Co-Lin regarding how itwent through the review.

“A lot of other colleges are interested in what we did,” Nettlessaid.

SACS is one of a number of regional organizations that deal withaccreditation for community colleges and universities across thecountry. Garner said accreditation involves off-site and on-siteevaluations of the college by different committees.

The on-site visit was last September over two or three days. Thevisit produced three follow-up questions, seeking a morenarrowly-focused enhancement plan and determinations of howstudents’ post-college success is measured, to be addressed byCo-Lin.

“We had a lot of data,” Nettles said about the measurementconcerns. “We just hadn’t, at that point, shown them how we useit.”

Nettles said Co-Lin’s techniques for measuring student successinclude transfer rates, employer satisfaction surveys, testingresults, placement rates and other data.

“We know what we expect of them and we use those measures todetermine whether we’re successful,” Nettles said.

Garner said the last change in accreditation criteria was in1984-85. Instead of over 300 “must” statements in compliancestandards, Co-Lin officials said the new criteria call for 65compliance principles and a Quality Enhancement Plan targeting aspecific area of the college.

Nettles said Co-Lin’s QEP focuses on developmental math.

“It took us a good year to develop a plan that was acceptable tothem,” Nettles said.

Nettles said school data found more students coming to collegemore deficient in math than in any other subject. Also, data showeda higher dropout rate in math classes and exit exam scores thatwere not where they needed to be.

“It’s not just a Co-Lin problem. It’s a statewide problem andone we wanted to tackle,” Nettles said.

Over the next five years, Nettles said Co-Lin will experimentwith different instructional efforts such as computer-aidedinstruction, tutoring and other methods.

“We’re going to study that data and try to identify what makes adifference in improving test scores,” Nettles said.

For Co-Lin students, accreditation means there is “full faithand credit” to allow their course work to transfer to otherinstitutions.

“You live or die by your credibility in the academic world,”Garner said about accreditation for Co-Lin and otherinstitutions.

If Co-Lin were not accredited, that work would not be accepted.Nettles added that not being accredited would be “disastrous” forthe college from a federal aid eligibility standpoint.

“There are a lot of things tied to accreditation,” Nettlessaid.

Garner and Nettles mentioned difficulties at the University ofSouthern Mississippi that resulted in that university being placedon probation. Garner said USM officials are making good progresstoward addressing accreditation issues but said being on probationis a situation to be avoided.

“That’s where you don’t want to be,” Garner said. “You don’twant to cast a shadow over your institution by not beingaccredited.”

Garner said schools come up for review on cycles on a 10-yearperiod. In any given year, one to three of Mississippi ‘s 15community colleges face accreditation reaffirmation.

Garner said Nettles had done a “super job” in handling theaccreditation process for Co-Lin. He also praised the compliancecommittee and Gwen McCalip, dean of the Natchez campus, for theirwork in the accreditation review.