Thanks to rigorous preparation, the University of Miami has been fully reaccredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for the next decade.

“After 28 years in higher education, never have I participated in a more thorough review of an institution,” says Assistant Provost Andy S. Gomez, who spearheaded the SACS reaccreditation effort. Receiving reaccreditation last year, he adds, “confirms that we are moving in the right direction.”

The Georgia-based SACS is the regional accrediting body for degree-granting colleges and universities in 11 U.S. southern states and Latin America. For the past three years, Gomez, who was recently appointed to the SACS board as a commissioner, worked closely with Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc—as well as administrators, deans, faculty, staff, and students—not only to satisfy SACS requirements but also to shape UM’s long-term direction by identifying and addressing strengths and weaknesses.

During the process, no program escaped scrutiny, no tome was left unturned. “They even looked at how the Board of Trustees conducts business and communicates what it does,” LeBlanc says. “It was an exhaustive, comprehensive effort.”

New standards for evaluating students and documenting the comprehensiveness of their education, new procedures for assessing off-campus courses, and the forward-thinking Faculty Learning Communities to Enhance Undergraduate Education initiative, among other measures, were enacted in support of the reaccreditation process and the University’s objectives.

Faculty Learning Communities, a five-year project being managed by Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education William Scott Green, trains faculty to use technology in the classroom and evaluates the impact on student learning.

Notes LeBlanc: “Our successful reaccreditation is a testament to the work we’ve done together as an institution.”