After three years of effort and commitment, the San Jose City College accreditation status has finally come back clean. This assures the two most important things to students on campus: Transferable credits and financial aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis full reaffirmation decree will renew our hope and commitment to our community,\u201d President Barbara Kavalier\u00a0said. \u201cIt signals there is a new day to say who we are, what we can accomplish and how great this institution is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kavalier\u00a0got word from Jack Pond, vice president of Team Operations and Communication of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, that SJCC\u00a0has been removed from probation and fully reaffirmed on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is wonderful news for SJCC, Evergreen and the district in general,\u201d said David Yancey, History professor and president of the American Federation of Teachers.<\/p>\n
The fall 2012 follow-up report included exclusive statistics and specific evidence that summarizes the effort of all faculty, staff, students and administration in fulfilling the last six requirements of the commission.<\/p>\n
Most of the work was done by the\u00a0Accreditation Overview Taskforce, which was co-chaired by faculty member Celia Cruz-Johnson and Spanish Instructor Rebecca Gamez.<\/p>\n
The whole work was collaboration between faculty, students, staff and administration, typically the Academic Senate and the Vice President of Student Affairs since 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of extraordinary, great work was done by a lot of extraordinary great folks,\u201d Yancey said. \u201cWe were successful in getting out from under the hammer that (probation and) accreditation had turned into.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school has received a lot of positive feedback even before the official announcement to be made in spring 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a different place from two years ago. The amount of engagement and commitment I observed is incredible,\u201d said John Morton, The chair of Accreditation Evaluation Team, according to a summary of the team\u2019s feedback, which was sent\u00a0out by Kavalier to all faculty and staff on Oct. 31, one day after the team visited the college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am totally delighted that this spring I will be graduated\u00a0and receiving a certificate that is accredited\u00a0from a fine institution,\u201d said Associate Student President Mike Casas.<\/p>\n
For the last two years, Casas sat on various committees and was responsible for seeing that the student involvement met its alignment to satisfy the Accreditation Committee\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n
Back in 2010, after submitting the Self Study Report to the commission, the college was put\u00a0on probation in spring 2011. The former Academic Senate President Chris Frazier said, \u201cWe\u2019re failing. We\u2019re failing seriously,\u201d regarding\u00a0the Student Learning Outcomes requirement, which \u201cappeared to be a losing proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tables have turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo way in the world would any of the team members who were here two years ago believe that we would be where we are today. Amazing work,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n
The summary said that Morton recognized that there is still some work to be\u00a0done in Humanities and Social Science but he \u201cfeels confident that (SJCC) will complete all of this. Remarkable accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school is now no longer under any sanctions, and this means there will be no questions or warnings about the school\u2019s accreditation status.<\/p>\n
SJCC\u00a0is fully accredited and supported by government funds. All the credits earned by students still can be counted and transferable to other colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout accreditation, SJCC would no longer qualify for Federal Grants or Student Financial Aid through the Federal Department of Education,\u201d Johnson-Cruz said. \u201cWithout federal aid, we would lose 80 percent of our students.<\/p>\n
The commission sent out\u00a0 its report to all schools in February. The report has been received\u00a0by the school and should be published in public.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving our accreditation reaffirmed can only have been possible when fueled by words like hope, aspirations, loyalty, passion and the belief that we \u2026 can overcome anything,\u201d wrote San Jose\/Evergreen Community College District Chancellor Rita Cepeda in an email Feb. 13.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After three years of effort and commitment, the San Jose City College accreditation status has finally come back clean. This assures the two most important things to students on campus: Transferable credits and financial aid. \u201cThis full reaffirmation decree will renew our hope and commitment to our community,\u201d President Barbara Kavalier\u00a0said. \u201cIt signals there is…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"staff_name":[602],"class_list":["post-7269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","staff_name-linh-nguyen"],"yoast_head":"\n