High fives and broad smiles marked the moment as UW Colleges Provost Greg Lampe broke the good news to Chancellor Ray Cross Friday afternoon. The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association letter of approval arrived March 1, 2013, granting the UW Colleges continued accreditation to offer the Associate of Arts and Science degree and approving UW Colleges’ request to offer the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) degree completion program. The HLC also approved a change in the UW Colleges mission to reflect the addition.
The BAAS degree completion program primarily is designed to help adults who have an Associate of Arts and Science degree obtain a bachelor’s degree without leaving their communities. The program will be offered starting in fall 2013 at six UW Colleges campuses in partnership with UW System universities:
UW-Baraboo/Sauk County, partnered with UW-La Crosse
UW-Barron County in Rice Lake, partnered with UW-Superior and UW-Stout
UW-Marshfield/Wood County, partnered with UW-Stevens Point
UW-Richland in Richland Center, partnered with UW-Platteville
UW-Rock County in Janesville, partnered with UW-Platteville
UW-Waukesha, partnered with UW-Parkside
BAAS details are provided in a news release and on the UW Colleges website.
The next reaffirmation of accreditation for UW Colleges – including the 13 campuses and UW Colleges Online and their programs – will be in 2022-23. UW Colleges will continue providing annual institutional updates to the HLC.
UW Colleges completed a self-study as part of the process. Lampe is incorporating recommendations from that study into the UW Colleges operational plan.
“Our next steps will be to review and share the recommendations from the peer evaluator team that visited us in November 2012,” Lampe said.
As Cross noted in a March 4 message to all employees, Lampe skillfully led the self-study process since the 2011-12 academic year. He had more than able help from members of his steering committee and eight other teams. Click on the “Committees/Teams” link at http://blogs.uwc.edu/hlc to find members’ names. That blog has been managed by UW-Rock County chemistry professor Kim Kostka, who noted that faculty and staff had spent thousands of hours over two years preparing.
Referring to himself as “your biggest fan,” the chancellor thanked all for their contributions.