Lincoln University seeking comments for accreditation process

Progress continues Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, on construction of the new Wellness Center on the Lincoln University campus. Located just east of Jefferson City High School, the building is on track to be completed by the end of January 2017.
Progress continues Friday, Aug. 5, 2016, on construction of the new Wellness Center on the Lincoln University campus. Located just east of Jefferson City High School, the building is on track to be completed by the end of January 2017.

The next Higher Learning Commission (HLC) visit to Lincoln University is just under six months from now.

But LU officials are asking the public to begin commenting now on Lincoln's teaching and other operations.

Lincoln has been accredited by the HLC or its predecessor agency since 1926 - five years after the state-owned school was designated as a "university."

During the visit March 20-21, 2017, a team of peer reviewers representing the Higher Learning Commission will review Lincoln's "ongoing ability to meet HLC's criteria for accreditation," LU said in a news release last week.

So, as part of the accreditation process, Lincoln "is seeking comments from the public about the university."

All comments must be submitted to the HLC by Feb. 19, 2017.

Those comments must be in writing and must address "substantive matters related to the quality of the institution and/or its academic programs," the LU news release explained.

Public comments may be submitted on the HLC's website, at www.hlcommission.org/comment.

Or they should be mailed to: Public Comment on Lincoln University, Higher Learning Commission, 230 South LaSalle Street Suite 7-500, Chicago, IL 60604-1411.

The HLC is the successor to the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, which was dissolved in 2014.

The HLC is an independent corporation founded in 1895 as one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States, which accredits degree-granting, post-secondary educational institutions in 19 states of the North Central region, including Missouri and six of the eight surrounding states.

Kentucky and Tennessee are not part of the HLC's territory, but it also covers Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and West Virginia.