By ALLI SCHIEBER
Editor in Chief
NWOSU had their ten-year accreditation visit from the Higher Learning Commission this week.
The department of education requires schools to be accredited. This is important to students for two main reasons, for students to have a valid degree and for students to receive financial aid.
This visit consists of five peer reviewers who met with students, administrators, faculty and staff at different times on Monday and Tuesday.
At the student forum students discussed both negative and positive areas of the university in a respectful matter and for every negative thing there were three to four positive things said.
“I think it was very worthwhile and that it shined very positively on Northwestern,” SGA president, Austin Rankin said. “I loved that it provided an opportunity for students to honestly address issues on campus. It helps Northwestern to adapt to changes and become better as an institution. I was also very proud of the outstanding turnout among students and student leadership as a whole.”
Several students including athletes, presidents or members of clubs on campus, undergraduate students and graduate students attended the student forum Monday. Carmen Gonser a graduate student from Woodward said that she was pleasantly surprised to see so many students show up to give their input on the university.
One topic students thought could be worked on is to make things more consistent from major to major. Some majors have excellent communication and advisors that help students feel prepared for when they graduate while other departments on campus lack that.
M’chelia Radar, a senior English literature major from Eudora, Kansas, said that it was interesting for her to hear how seniors from other departments felt with their experience here opposed to her own experience.
Another topic students felt NWOSU could improve on is making students more aware of all the great resources we have on campus.
Several students have no idea about the LASSO center, free health care at Share Medical on certain days for students or that there is a counselor on campus Jamie Franco-Torres, a freshman criminal justice major from Hennesey, said that some of the resources talked about she had no idea existed.
She also said that she liked hearing everyone’s different views on things and how everyone has had a different experience here.
“Overall, I felt really proud to hear all of the good things that everyone had to say about NWOSU,” Gosner said. “The questioners had really great questions and it seemed like everyone was eager to give the best, most detailed answers they could. I was really happy to see that while so many people had wonderful things to say, students weren’t afraid to point out the things that could be improved upon too.”
Madeline Long a junior early childhood education major, said that she felt like the HLC reviewers truly wanted to know how students felt about the university and that they asked students why they chose NWOSU. She also saw them taking notes and recalling the information students gave them.
The reviewers will have a month to get together a report and give it back to HLC.
If they find an area they think that NWOSU can approve on they will give the school two years to improve that area before looking back into it.
NWOSU had their four year visit six years ago where administration met virtually with acreditors and they looked over the universities report.
At that time there was no corrections needed.
