Thank You for Your Hard Work

Dear Colleague,

Thank you.

Please accept our deepest appreciation for the role you played in our reaffirmation of accreditation with the HLC. Your hard work and dedication — both in preparing for and participating in the visit over the past few days and, more importantly, in fostering a culture of continuous quality improvement — were instrumental in demonstrating our commitment to excellence.

Through your work preparing for this accreditation site visit and implementing the quality initiative, we are addressing the goals of our strategic plan: 

• Numerous staff helped us strengthen the KU Catalog into a single source of truth. 
• Faculty improved outcomes for our students through more robust program assessment.
• We improved student engagement practices. 
• Degree maps are helping our students more easily work their way toward degree completion. 

These are major advances that have lasting positive impact on the largest community we serve: Our students.

KU’s quality initiative, Developing and Scaling an Integrated Structure of Evidence-Based Assessment to Foster a Culture of Continuous Quality Improvement, was a two-year effort that established a framework and provided consistency for:

1. Defining our Institutional Learning Goals as a framework to align assessment efforts across all campuses,
2. Scaling degree-level assessment to measure learning outcomes, and
3. Refreshing academic program review to achieve a meaningful evaluation of program health and effectiveness.

During the exit interview, the HLC team shared their appreciation for the strong turnout across all our locations and forums. They noted that KU had made great progress in continuous quality improvement over the past five years. Our work shows we are committed to our mission and dedicated to the university. They remarked that people at KU are genuinely excited about the future of the university and the opportunities we have in One KU.

This reaffirmation visit is a milestone and it is also a reflection of the collective effort we put into ensuring the highest standards of educating leaders, building healthy communities, and making discoveries that change the world.

Many university employees whose work is not directly tied to student interaction, including people in finance, facilities, human resources, IT and beyond, have been essential to our transformation. Your dedication ensures our university operates smoothly, creating an environment where learning and discovery can thrive. Your daily efforts are an important component of our accreditation process.

The accreditation review process is thorough and deliberate. The final report from HLC will arrive by semester’s end. As we move forward, we have already begun the process of institutionalizing our accountabilities for accreditation, ensuring continuous improvement remains at the core of what we do. This visit was a major step in that journey, and because of your efforts, we are a stronger and better university. 

Thank you for your dedication to our mission, the success of our students and stewardship of KU.

Respectfully,

Doug, Barb & Steven

Douglas A Girod

Chancellor

Barbara A. Bichelmeyer

Chief Academic Officer & Provost

Executive Vice Chancellor for KU Lawrence & Edwards 

Steven Stites

Chief Health Sciences Officer

Executive Vice Chancellor for KU Medical Center