By Kim Manahan (Whetstone Staff Writer)

Kim Manahan

It’s official: your Wesley College degree means everything you thought it would.

The Middle States Association found the college up to par with all of its standards. The organization accredits schools in much of the northeast, including Delaware.

“They found that Wesley has made tremendous progress during the 18 months since their visit in spring 2009,” said Dr. Patricia Dwyer, vice president of academic affairs.

During their last visit, Middle States found Wesley not to be up to standard in four of 14 areas all colleges must attain.

The 3-member team arrived Sept. 8 and looked at several areas, including long term planning, multi-year budgeting, institutional effectiveness and research, enrollment management and assessment of student learning, Dwyer said.

“They wanted to ensure that processes are in place to measure these areas with the goal of using data to inform decision-making,” she said.

In 2008, Dr. William Johnston, president of the college, initiated a strategic plan, which was passed by the Board of Trustees in spring 2009.

“A campus master plan followed shortly thereafter,” Dwyer said. “At the same time, the College realized the need to develop processes to assess student learning and increase capacity for institutional research.”

The visitation team met with faculty and administrators to ask follow up questions, Johnston said.

The college held a faculty workshop in August 2009, and academic departments began to assess learning goals in the programs, Dwyer said.

Dr. Colleen DiRaddo and Dr. Chul Lee were added to the staff to help in the assessment efforts, Dwyer said.

“Funding was also targeted toward retention efforts, particularly in programming for our first year students,” she said.

Johnston and Dwyer both extended congratulations to the faculty and staff.

“Having a full endorsement by the Middle States Association speaks volumes about the level of the educational experience our students receive,” Johnston said.