Reporter Volume 25, No.10 November 4, 1993

A committee of 16 university faculty and administrators from
throughout the United States will visit UB Nov. 7-10 as part of the
reaccreditation review by the Commission on Higher Education: Middle
States Association of Colleges and Schools.
	Thomas Ehrlich, president of the Indiana University system,
will chair the site visit team. A graduate of Harvard University and
Harvard Law School, he has been professor of law at Indiana University
in Bloomington and Indianapolis since 1987.
	Among the other committee members are Bertram O. Fraser-Reid,
James B. Duke Professor of chemistry at Duke University; Dr. Akram
Midani, College Professor of Multidisciplines and Dean Emeritus of the
College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University; Donald R. Price,
vice president for research at the University of Florida, and Joseph
A. Potenza, provost at Rutgers University. 
	According to Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and executive officer
of the Middle States Review Steering Committee, the site visit team
"will meet with many members of the administration and the faculty,
including, for instance, the steering committee and the Faculty Senate
Executive Committee; with groups of students and any others whom they
choose to meet. It's really their call as to whom they wish to meet
with. We've set up some organized meetings, however."
	According to Malone, the visiting team, when looking at an
entire institution, takes into account 16 "characteristics": missions,
goals and objectives; institutional integrity; planning and resource
allocation; programs and curricula; outcomes/institutional
effectiveness; admissions and student services; faculty; organization
and administration; governing board; budgeting and accounting;
library/learning resources center; other resources; plant and
equipment; innovation and experimentation; catalogs and publications.
	In preparation for the site visit, the campus' Middle States
Steering Committee has issued a self-study that examines the
university comprehensively. 
	"The previous self-study focused entirely on graduate
education and research," Malone said. "This time we have a general or
overall summary of the university. This is a comprehensive review that
includes everything with the exception of the professional schools
because they are accredited separately. There are two separate foci:
graduate education and research, and quality of life for student and
faculty."
	According to Malone, the Middle States review takes place
roughly every 10 years. The university's last Middle States review
occurred in August, 1982. 
	The group visiting UB next week has been supplied with
extensive background material. "They do most of their work right
here," said Malone. "It's our understanding that they will make their
contributions to the report before they leave."
	An exit interview to UB administration and "parts of faculty"
will give officials here a general sense of the findings, Malone said.
The formal evaluation will come later, he explained.
	According to Malone, the university had input as to the
make-up of the site team, so as to assure familiarity with concerns of
a large research university.