Vincent Boudreau
Dear Colleagues,
We just finished receiving our preliminary oral report from the Middle States team. To put that report in context, we will receive, 10 days from now, a written and edited version of that report. It will also be sent to Middle States Central (if they use that nomenclature) and we will have a formal set of findings by June. So this is a very preliminary report, but I didn't want to keep you in the dark.
I think we could not have hoped for a better report. Of the 7 standards, we are fully compliant in 6. The one area in which we were out of compliance is the governance and planning area, in which the question was whether or not we had a strategic plan in place to guide our activity—we currently do not, and they have a full understanding of where we stand on this matter, and why we are there.
To review that issue: We have two remnants of an incomplete strategic planning process: a framework document and Vantage Point 2022. One way to conceive of the task force that I convened is that it is designed to inject strategy into the list of goals laid out in the Vantage Point 2022 document: where do we prioritize, what goals are most necessary, which are less important—and how do we approach the entire enterprise against our budget realities?
The Middle States team said, and will write into their report, that they find the task force process to be a positive one, and that had their visit taken place a little further along in our process, they might well have been able to give us passing marks on this standard as well. For us, this means that the task force and an application of its results to our planning efforts is crucial to our future, and to our compliance with this accreditation process.
However—and this is the big news from today: In all other respects we were in compliance and to the extent that they made recommendations to us, they typically cite our ongoing efforts, asking that we continue as we have started. This could not have gone better.
I'd like to thank everyone who was involved in this process, particularly Doris Cintron, who led the effort and everyone who worked over the past several years to develop the self-study, and to think deeply about where the campus currently stands. The entire campus, and I, owe you each a debt of gratitude.
I also want to share with you what was, for me (and I think, for the visiting team) the most striking impression that they took from CCNY. This was an incredibly experienced Middle States team, with two of them having double digit accreditation visits under their belt. They said they have never seen a campus that is so fiercely proud of its legacy, and so deeply committed to its mission. They understand that we are still in a transitional mode, and that we labor under a series of head shakenly difficult constraints. But they were so impressed by the commitment to our mission, and future that they found on campus. It was palpable in the room; they are pulling for our success, they understand and will convey the odds we are up against, and they are hopeful for us—in large part because of your faith and pride.
I anticipate that we will come out of this process in very good shape, that we will have—as you all know—work to do, and that CCNY will be the better for our efforts.
Thank you, one and all,
Vince Boudreau
President