A tremendous achievement
Greetings from Valley City State University! 
On these bitter cold days of recent weeks, we find ourselves looking forward to the return of spring. We’ve had much positive news to celebrate on campus recently highlighted by receiving official notification from the Higher Learning Commission regarding the results of our 2021 re-accreditation visit and process.
At its January meeting, the HLC’s Institutional Actions Council (IAC) reviewed our case and has continued the accreditation of Valley City State University until 2031-32. In taking this action, the IAC considered materials from the most recent evaluation and the institutional response to the evaluation findings.
This is a tremendous achievement!
In comments from the HLC site team visit to VCSU, several strengths were noted including our strong sense of community, reputation of the institution, strong state support, active engagement of the SBHE, data driven decision making, successful navigation of COVID-19, and strong shared governance. The final HLC report states, “VCSU has met all of the Criteria for Accreditation and has a healthy, forward-looking culture that uses evidence of institutional and program effectiveness to inform decisions and to make improvements.”
I wish to thank everyone who participated and contributed to this effort and its successful outcome. Special thanks to the assurance argument writing team and criterion chairs for the outstanding work in gathering data, preparing our documents and links, and leading the university through this process. Team members included Dr. Margaret Dahlberg, Dr. Katie Woehl, Dr. Anthony Dutton, Emily Dafoe, Dr. Kerry Gregoryk and Dr. Jamie Wirth.
Every standard was met, and we have no requirements for interim reporting. This successful outcome reflects the dedication and quality of our faculty, staff, and students.
This was a team effort that featured collaboration and support from our community as well. Thank you, Valley City, for your continued support of our university. The town-gown relationship is strong, and we continually look for ways to strengthen it even more. This external validation is important for the university and community as we move forward together to provide top-notch educational opportunities for our students. Thank you for helping our students feel welcome and for your continued support. We recognize and appreciate this very much.
Institutional accreditation is so important to our continued forward momentum, and we are very appreciative of all who helped us realize this outcome. This is certainly a prime example of “We All Row.”
Go Vikings!