Dan Woods talks with Dr. Doug Koch, Interim Provost at Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Koch shares about recent accreditation and reaccreditation of academic programs.
Woods:
This is KRCU Going Public. Our next guest is Dr. Doug Koch. He's the interim provost at Southeast Missouri State and is here to update us on happenings in Academic Affairs. I spoke with him on the television program Focus on Southeast. So, let's do an overview of some of the things that have been happening with Academic Affairs. We'll run out of time, I'm sure. Let's first talk about some accreditation and reaccreditation have been happening.
Koch:
Sure, and we will definitely run out of time, because there's too many to mention and actually hit on and touch on all of those. I want to hit first on our institutional accreditation. We are accredited—the institutional is accredited—by HLC, the Higher Learning Commission. And what that is is an overall accreditation that looks at the entire institution, our operations, our student support, our effectiveness of instruction, and then some of the fiscal responsibilities, as well too. That process is a 10-year cycle. In 2019, we had our comprehensive visit, where they actually came to campus, did an onsite visit. With that visit, you submit a complete self-study, and that went extremely well with no issues, no follow up reports or anything else like that. Part of that 10-year cycle is four years later, you submit what they call an assurance report. We just recently submitted that and received back the final report from HLC. And again, outstanding review with no follow up reports or anything else that was required to document or show that we are meeting the requirements and the standards. So, very excited about that.
Woods:
I’ve talked with different folks on the program about accreditation. One of the things I've learned is that you do the paperwork and all the reporting at certain times, but it's really a continual process. There's always work being done even before the review comes up, right?
Koch:
Exactly. And accreditors, both specialized and institutional, have gotten a lot more specific about that, and they expect to see that continual timeline. They want to know what you did five years ago, four years ago, up to the present.
Woods:
So, the Provost Office…are you sort of the keeper overall? How does that work? Who kind of does the work?
Koch:
We kind of pull all that information together out of our office, but it is a campus wide endeavor. I mean, it is faculty, staff…touches almost every area on campus.
Woods:
So, talk some about…that's the overall…talk some about the departmental, some recent ones.
Koch:
Sure, specialized accreditations. We have over 20, I guess, 28 institutions that offer specialized accreditation that we have here on campus. And that includes accrediting over 100 different programs and options. So, quite a few programs. And again, what they do is they check the quality of the programs and help assure that we're meeting those goals and maintaining outstanding quality. So, recently, Mass Media was recently accredited…Interior Design. We've had several recently. We've got a few in process, like our Art & Design program. Theatre is coming up, and several others. We typically have about three to five a year that are pretty much ongoing every year.
Woods:
So, there's always somebody working on their process.
Koch:
Absolutely.
Woods:
For those who are listening or watching who don't really understand what that is…accreditation... how important is it? What does it really mean when somebody sees that they have this many accredited programs.
Koch:
Yeah, accreditation is very important, and particularly more important to some programs, probably, than others, but it's important to all of them. Again, it's that external evaluator that comes in and looks at and says, yes, your program meets the quality standards that those organizations have set. And most of those are professional organizations, so we’re living up to those standards, standards of employers. Some programs, you’ve actually got to graduate from an accredited program to, say, sit for your board exam for Nursing. If you don't graduate from an accredited program, you can't be a registered nurse. So, there are several programs that require it. There are several that that is just kind of the industry standard where you're applying for a position as a graduate, someone's going to ask you, you know, was your program accredited? If you say yes, obviously that's a good thing. If you say your programs weren’t accredited or they have an issue with accreditation, that's usually a red flag.
Woods:
They mark something on the clipboard.
Koch:
Exactly. They're not as usually excited about that.
Woods:
Are there more accreditation processes than there used to be? More programs? It seems like we talk about this more than we used to. Is that fair to say?
Koch:
There's a few more accreditation agencies being added, but I think it's pretty consistent, pretty stable. We've added a few programs that didn't have accreditations before that are seeking accreditations. We've got a few other programs that are considering it. There are some programs that just don't have organizations that offer accreditation for some of those programs.
Woods:
Let’s talk about maybe some of the new programs, or newer programs at the university.
Koch:
Yeah, there are several. I'm only going to touch on a couple, so I apologize to those that I leave out. A few recent ones from the past year, Financial Econometrics, Business Analytics, Aviation Management, we had an option in Human Resources, our MBA in Human Resources. I’m trying to think of others that are out there we're looking into, and I can't go into any real details on programs that are considering, but a couple other aviation type and related programs, some data sciences, expanding computer science, cyber security opportunities, those types of things.
Woods:
Let’s talk a little more about the Aviation Management. That's the newest part of that, but that program, since…kind of give us a sense of this pilot program. It's really grown, hasn’t it?
Koch:
It has and succeeded expectations, and it's grown to about 150 majors currently. If you haven't been out for the airport, you need to go by the Commander Hanger. It’s the one with the SEMO sign on the side of the building. There are students coming and going and booking flight time. It's very exciting. There’s a lot of buzz out there.
Woods:
So, the pilot program was first. Now the management, which is sort of some of the behind the scenes that happens in aviation. There's plenty of job opportunities in this field, right?
Koch:
Absolutely. You know, we oftentimes don't think of, or most people that aren't associated with the aviation industry, don’t think about all the opportunities. If you flow through an airport, just think next time when you're walking through there about the food services, the design, the layout. I mean, you were moving cities full of people multiple times throughout the day.
Woods:
We’ve got a couple of minutes left. So, let's talk a little about cyber. The Cyber Command Center recently had a ribbon cutting. Talk about that program and its growth and its potential continue to increase.
Koch:
Yeah, Cyber Security. I don't think I can say enough about the importance of Cyber Security. Each and every one of us are on a device, or watching this on some kind of electronic device, or listening to it on an electronic device. Securing those is going to be a continual battle and critically important moving forward. So, we want to train those students, and the Cyber Command Center gives us an outstanding opportunity…one of the first in the state that has that capability in a center like that, just to educate our students and the community. We’re trying to work with industries to train and teach those folks how to better secure their businesses.
Woods:
So, businesses in our area and beyond are looking for folks who are trained in this to hire, right? There are jobs available.
Koch:
Absolutely. We oftentimes think of companies, but don't think about all the different layers that exist in a company. So, imagine a manufacturer. Well, they've also got, you know, technology, cyber that have to be secure. They've got accounts. They've got all kinds of other things, too, but a lot of that relies on technology.
Woods:
We've been talking with Dr. Doug Koch. He's interim provost here at Southeast Missouri State University. To hear more interviews, visit krcu.org, and don't forget to subscribe to the Going Public podcast. It's available wherever you get your podcasts.
