Accrediting commission takes Hawaii Community College and Honolulu Community College off warning

Windward Community College remains on warning status

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Carolyn Tanaka, (808) 956-9803
Mia Noguchi, (808) 956-9095
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Feb 3, 2006

HONOLULU — The Western Association of Schools and Colleges‘ Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) has removed the warning status previously placed on Hawaiʻi Community College and Honolulu Community College for issues surrounding assessment and program review.

All seven of the University of Hawaiʻi‘s community colleges submitted progress reports to the ACCJC in October 2005 and were visited by special evaluation teams in November 2005. Removal of the warning status for Hawaiʻi CC and Honolulu CC was based on these progress reports and the reports from the special evaluation team.

In a letter to University of Hawaiʻi Interim President David McClain, the ACCJC also commended the efforts of the university and the administration "to bring the community colleges into alignment with accreditation standards." The Commission acknowledged that "the University of Hawaiʻi Community College System made significant changes in order to support the accreditation of the colleges."

Kapiʻolani Community College was also praised for "making progress in developing an integrated approach to its evaluative and planning activities." The Commission noted the college‘s development of an internal fund for allocation to projects identified through program review processes as an example of its progress.

Windward Community College remains on warning status and will be expected to demonstrate further progress on issues of assessment, institutional effectiveness and improvement when comprehensive evaluation teams visit all the community college campuses this fall.

Honolulu, Kapiʻolani, Kauaʻi, Leeward, Maui and Windward Community Colleges were placed on warning status in February 2005 after the Commission reviewed the UH Community Colleges‘ October 2004 progress report, citing the need for improvement in the areas of assessment and program review and the importance of articulating relationships between the UH System office and the individual campuses.

Following an ACCJC evaluation team visit in April 2005 and progress reports submitted by the campuses and UH System, the ACCJC acted to remove four of the six campuses from warning status—Kapiʻolani, Kauaʻi, Leeward and Maui—and placed Hawaiʻi CC on warning status. The UH System office also reorganized community college functions by creating the Office of the Vice President for Community Colleges. Community college chancellors now report to the vice president for community colleges for leadership and coordination of community college matters.

All seven community colleges are fully accredited by the ACCJC. The accredited status of the institution continues during the warning period. Warning status, the mildest form of sanction levied by the ACCJC, reflects the Commission‘s concern about a "course deviating from the Commission‘s eligibility criteria, standards or policies."

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/offices/app/