Institutional Effectiveness
Institutional Effectiveness
External accreditation responsibilities at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) are housed within the Office of the Provost. Dr. Douglas Masterson, Senior Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, and the Institution’s liaison to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), supervises all external accreditation activities.
The University is responsible for accurately representing to the public its status and relationship with SACSCOC and maintaining openness in all accreditation-related activities. USM is proud of its tradition of academic excellence, as well as the outstanding professional relationships it has developed with external accreditors. In order to adhere to SACSCOC standards regarding external accreditation, programs are required to do the following when working on all accreditation tasks.
IE can also help you with planning for accreditation. IHL requires that the University attempt to acquire accreditation for all of its eligible programs. If your program or emphasis area meets the necessary criteria for accreditation, IE is able to work with you on a timeline to accreditation. In fact, IE requires that programs submit a timeline to our office to keep in our archives.
A listing of external accrediting agencies can be found here.
Institutions accredited by SACSCOC must undergo a reaffirmation process every ten years to maintain accreditation. In 2016, the SACSCOC Board of Trustees reaffirmed accreditation for The University of Southern Mississippi. The reaffirmation statement can be found here.
The following is the 10-year reaffirmation timeline for USM:
2016 |
Last Reaffirmation |
2022 |
5th-Year Interim Report |
2025 |
Reaffirmation Report |
2026 |
On-Site Reaffirmation Review and Results |