The University of North Georgia will soon be required to submit a Fifth-year Interim Report as part of its SACSCOC reaffirmation efforts. This report is an abbreviated version of the compliance certification that is required every 10 years, and it includes about a quarter of these standards. There are two things that are important to note about the upcoming submission. First, UNG will be submitting the QEP Impact Report about the effect of the QEP initiatives on student success. Second, the Fifth-year Interim Report will be based on the new SACSCOC Principles of Accreditation which were approved in 2018. While the new principles are different, in most cases the old and new standards are very similar. We should be able to reuse significant portions of the narratives from the Compliance Certification we submitted in 2015; however, some of the sections will need significant editing to update the information and align with the new standards.
The sections below provide a list of key dates, the required standards, and a summary of the review process and potential outcomes.
| Key Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 2021 | Work starts: compile old narratives into new drafts; launch Fifth-year Interim Report website; Identify content matter experts for each standard. |
| February 2021 | Start training/orientation meetings for content matter experts; Updating/rewriting begins and continues through 2021; Internal audits of compliance. Roll-out Fifth-Year Interim Report Website. |
| April 2021 | UNG receives notification letter from the SACSCOC Board of Trustees as notification of upcoming Fifth-Year Interim Report and any necessary follow-up reports. |
| January 15, 2022 | All drafts completed and supporting documents placed in Xitracs; Final proofreading begins; links to supporting documentation are created and checked. VPs will be responsible for final approval of narratives in their respective areas. |
| March 15, 2022 | Due date for Fifth-year Interim Report and related documents. |
| June 2022 | Review by the Committee on Fifth-Year Interim Reports. |
| September 2025 | Ten-Year Reaffirmation: Compliance Certification is due. |
| February - May 2026 | On-campus site visit will take place. |
The report will be reviewed by the Committee on Fifth‐Year Interim Reports. This process is completed by SACSCOC peer evaluators who will evaluate UNG’s compliance, similar to what takes place at the ten-year reaffirmation. Each of four committees reviews approximately 10 institutions. This committee has five members: Coordinator, IE evaluator, student services evaluator, and two academic program evaluators. Two or more finance reviewers also participate. The evaluators have two options: (1) No referral or (2) referral to a Compliance & Reports (C & R) Committee.
The C & R committee has the following options after being referred a report: (1) No additional report requested, (2) Request a monitoring report (which starts the two‐year limited monitoring period), or (3) Recommend placing the institution on a sanction, with a monitoring report, and with or without a Special Committee visit to the campus, or (4) Recommend removal from membership.