Middle States Commission begins Rider accreditation renewal

By Hannah Newman

A meeting was held on March 10 to address the process of renewing Rider’s accreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, a global institutional accreditor for self-study, concluding with an open forum where attendees asked about the future of diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom.

Self-study is an institution-wide assessment that demonstrates compliance with a set of seven standards that reflect best practices in higher education. Institutions must be accredited in order to receive federal financial aid on behalf of its students, according to a universitywide email from Rider Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Planning Debbie Stasolla.

The standards cover every aspect inside and outside of the classroom and analyze resources and strategies around student learning, according to Middle States Commission Vice President Terence Peavy, who came to present the accreditation process to students, staff and faculty. Every seven years, institutions go through the accreditation process.

“Similar to your institution, we have our own vision of values and we feel like within our membership, there’s some keywords here that really speak to everything that all institutions are doing within our commission,” said Peavy, “There’s a focus on quality, that’s definitely in there too and really putting students at the center. Knowing that all the things we do at colleges and universities emanate with students and being prepared for the various challenges that they will pursue after they graduate.”

In July 2023, Middle States moved into its 14th edition of standards where it added the evidence and expectation by standard portion of the evaluation, according to Peavy.

“This is a game changer, we’ve never had this before,” said Peavy. “This basically allows institutions like [Rider] to prepare in such a way that we are sharing what we are expecting each institution to have with regards to evidence by standard … every institution that I have met with that are now in the 14th edition have applauded this document.”

A major event in the life of an institution, completed every seven years, accreditation is also an opportunity to focus on areas important to the university while also laying the foundation for Rider’s strategic planning process under new Presidential leadership, according to the email. 

Rider’s accreditation was last confirmed in 2018 following an on-campus visit by a team of peer evaluators that spring, according to the email. 

“Peer evaluators are essential to all that we do,” said Peavy. “Right now we have between 2,500 and 2,800 peer evaluators in our database. These are people who volunteer their time to a wide variety of commissions at Middle States and they are really central to everything that we do.”

Middle States works closely with the Department of Education, prompting a member of the audience to ask where DEI falls in the self-study evaluation given recent federal actions attempting to cut DEI initiatives in education.

“We have not had any discussions right now about removing DEI requirements from our standards. Even the way that DEI was interpreted in our standards, was done in a very thoughtful way,” Peavy said. “We did not describe what DEI was to institutions, it’s basically up to the institutions to define what that means to them and how it emanates from your particular mission.”

Peavy added that Middle States has a criterion that speaks to institutions aligning themselves with state and federal regulations. 

“As we learn more about what it means [DEI changes] … we’re not saying we want institutions to be on the wrong side of the law if it’s state or federal,” said Peavy. “Those are moments when there are internal conversations with legal teams and understanding how they are aligning with those laws but we’re just trying to navigate unstable waters and understanding what can be done.” 

Although this marks the beginning of the accreditation process, results will not be finalized for two years, according to Stasolla. 

“This is a two-year process, and what I expect is we will be back in this room two years from now to listen to our successful exit report. That’s what we’re shooting for,” said Stasolla.

Caroline Haviland contributed to the reporting in this article.