What is the Quality Initiative?
As part of the accreditation requirements set by the Higher Learning Commission for universities on the Open Pathway, SIUE is required to identify and implement a large-scale quality initiative between years five and nine of the decennial accreditation cycle. A Quality Initiative project (QI) may be designed to begin and be completed during this time, or an institution may continue a project that is already in progress or achieve a key milestone in the work of a longer initiative. The Quality Initiative is intended to allow institutions to take risks, aim high and learn from only partial success or even failure.
This is an exciting opportunity for SIUE students, faculty and staff to come together and think about what our quality initiative could be. What is a campus-wide project you are particularly excited about? What kind of university initiative should we focus our energy, resources and combined efforts on, leading us on the path to a successful completion?
The initiative should positively transform SIUE, as a whole, by significantly improving an issue that affects our campus. Although HLC offers some potential options for consideration, SIUE is free to propose its own initiative, tailored to the unique needs of the University and capturing its culture and specific community needs.
Additional information about the HLC Quality Initiative can be found here.
To see the timeline and the roadmap to the final QI proposal, click on the image below.
You can access the entire Quality Initiative Proposal submitted to HLC here.
The Quality Initiative Report
In May 2024, the University submitted the SIUE QI report outlining the outcomes of our proposed activities and goals. You can read the QI report here.
In June 2024, SIUE received the HLC review report, confirming that SIUE's QI report has been accepted. The University was commended for showing genuine effort in meeting the goals set forth in the proposal. You can read the HLC review letter and comments here.
To see a summary presentation of the QI outcomes, please click on the image below:
What did SIUE’s Quality Initiative planning process look like?
As a community, our collective task was to envision a project that both aligned with our University strategic plan and captured our collective aspirations. In this regard, the University Quality Council, comprised of university leadership, faculty members, students and staff, begun working on identifying themes that represent university priorities well aligned with our strategic goals. The next step was the distribution of these themes via a university survey to gauge how these themes resonate with the SIUE community, as well as any others that might not have been part of the original discussion. The feedback and the results of the survey were extremely valuable and assisted the University Quality Council as it continued the work of planning and selecting the Quality Initiative project.
You can see the university community survey here.
View the summarized results of the university-wide survey here.
Please, take a look at this video link, where Chancellor Randall Pembrook explains the QI and its significance for SIUE.
To see additional information detailing SIUE's QI proposal journey, click here.
