In August, the Middle States Steering Committee announced that Ithaca College’s Self-Study Design was accepted by our Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) Vice President Liaison, Dr. Ryan Hartnett. Since then, a talented group of faculty, staff, and student volunteers have been diligently engaged in working on IC’s self-study. (A Middle States self-study is an assessment that helps institutions demonstrate compliance with accreditation standards and improve their educational quality.)
During the first two months of the Fall 2024 semester, our seven working groups examined hundreds of pieces of evidence to assess the College’s alignment with reaccreditation standards, to highlight our strengths, and to identify areas of opportunity.
From this research, each working group generated a draft chapter, which will ultimately form the basis of the Self-Study Report that IC will submit in advance of an on-campus visit during the Spring 2026 semester. These chapters have gone through a series of reviews by the Middle States Steering Committee as well as college leadership to ensure accuracy, highlight any areas that might be missing from the draft, and to further refine the documents.
What’s Next?
This semester, the Reaccreditation working groups will continue to revise and refine the chapters, in advance of submitting them to the editor who will bring them together into a cogent report. Please note that this document will be available to the campus community at the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester for additional input.
Thank you to everyone who is working as part of the Reaccreditation team as well as to those who have provided us with the valuable data and information that informs our work.
The Middle States Reaccreditation Process
In March 2023, Ithaca College announced the start of its periodic reaccreditation process with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), a regional association that performs peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in selected regions of the United States. Every eight years, IC is required to submit a Self-Study Report, followed by a campus visit by an MSCHE board of examiners.
For Questions and More Information
Campus community members with questions about the upcoming Middle States campus visit or the reaccreditation process should visit ithaca.edu/middle-states-reaccreditation or email MiddleStatesTeam@ithaca.edu.