Middle States Reaccreditation
Process Confirms College's "Excellence"

7/21/2009 

Swarthmore recently received its reaccreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Eight members of an evaluation team, led by President emerita of Wellesley College Diana Chapman Walsh, conducted a site visit in the spring that included meeting with dozens of administrators, faculty members, students, staff, and alumni.

"It is indeed gratifying to receive word that the College is in 'full compliance with all of the Commission's 'standards of excellence' for reaccreditation,'" said President Rebecca Chopp and Provost Constance Hungerford today in a message to the campus community. "Our Middle States report is filled with favorable insights about the College as well as constructive suggestions on how we might continue to pursue even higher levels of excellence."

In their message, Chopp and Hungerford also cited a passage from the  report that states: "In virtually every encounter we heard spontaneous expressions of faith in the good intentions of others ... an appreciation of mutually-interdependent relations, a preference for cooperation over competition and an interaction style that naturally and gently smoothed incipient conflict.... This relational trust buys Swarthmoreans the time they need to deliberate thoughtfully and conscientiously - not by applying abstract rules or forcing hasty compromises but by knowing the rightness of their actions by the integrity of the discernment process from which they spring."

Ellen Magenheim, professor of economics, served as chair of the Middle States Steering Committee and worked closely with Robin Shores, director of institutional research, to manage every facet of the Middle States review process. "Many thanks go to them," Chopp and Hungerford added, "and to all members of the College community who participated in the examination and lent their time and expertise to such a powerful and positive result."