Institutional Proposal

The Institutional Proposal is the first stage of the reaccreditation process. The Institutional Proposal, a self-study that focuses on issues germane to a university's mission with the goal of developing "researchable questions," guides the entire review process. In desinging the proposal, institutions are encouraged to be creative, build on processes already in place, focus on a limited number of issues that can be addressed in depth, critique and refine the analysis and use of evidence collected by the institution, and significantly increase the institution's attention to student learning.

Campuses are also expected to engage the entire campus community in identifying issues to be explored. In accordance with this, the USD WASC Steering Committee organized student, staff, faculty, and administrator focus group discussions on defining "educational excellence" then conducted a campus-wide survey following up on the focus group discussions during Spring 2007.

After circulating a draft of the proposal to the campus community for comment in Fall 2007, USD will submit its Institutional Proposal to WASC in Spring 2008.