President Sundberg named higher learning commission peer reviewer

Carl Sandburg College President Lori Sundberg has been selected as a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission. Sundberg will undergo training this spring and visit her first site during the 2011-2012 school year.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association Peer Reviewer Corps as a peer reviewer,” said Dr. Lori Sundberg, president of Carl Sandburg College. “It is an honor to be part of the Corps, but more importantly, it will allow me to visit other community colleges across the country as part of their reaccreditation process. The information and learning that I will gather from these site visits will be simply invaluable.”

According to The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) website, peer reviewers are responsible for assuring that an institution is complying with the accreditation criteria as well as for helping an institution advance within the context of its own mission. The Higher Learning Commission conducts institutional accreditation, which evaluates an entire educational organization in terms of its mission and the agency’s standards or criteria.

The HLC is an independent corporation and one of two commission members of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), which is one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States. The Higher Learning Commission accredits degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions in the North Central region.

Carl Sandburg College received a visit from an NCA evaluation team Nov. 8–10, 2010. Though the official report has not yet arrived, the committee recommended a 10 Year Re-Accreditation status with no additional reports or visits required.

More about the responsibilities of peer reviewers can be found at http://www.ncahlc.org/information-for-the-peer-corps/peer-reviewers.html.