Introduction to the MSCHE Self-Study

Welcome to the NDMU Middle States Commission on Higher Education Self-Study Team. You have been selected and appointed to this team based on your expertise in your areas, your knowledge of higher education, and your commitment to Notre Dame.

As you know, this team will work to produce NDMU’s decennial self-study report, which will be submitted to Middle States in December, 2016, as part of the our requirements for reaccreditation. You will also be the hosts and the ambassadors for the Middle States examiners when they visit in spring, 2017.

Self-Study is not a shallow activity and not for the faint of heart.  Please approach this process with professionalism, courage, integrity, and perseverance.  Commit to this process wholeheartedly—or not at all.  The next 2 ½ years will involve hard work, hard questions, and sometimes painful institutional introspection as we work to uncover the excellence that guides our university, the strengths that propel us through challenges, and the opportunities for improvement that will ensure our success as we navigate changing times and changing expectations within a global community.

At this point in our institutional history, successful reaccreditation is a priority, and NDMU needs your dedication, your sharp inquiry, and your ability to think beyond what “was” and what “is” -- to what “could be” and what “should be.”  Working as a team, and with the entire NDMU family, we will see this process through to successful self-reflection and reaccreditation. 

To accomplish this, each each Steering Committee and Work Group member will:

  • Make your role in this process a professional priority
  • Attend meetings and complete work assignments within your group
  • Respect timelines and deadlines
  • Ask tough, but fair questions, and seek answers until found or developed
  • Stay the course through the entire process
  • Do your part with 100% commitment to success
  • Shake off discouragement, and push through barriers and roadblocks
  • Ask for help when needed
  • Spread the “good news” of self-reflection and self-study with those outside the team
  • Ensure that  “Middle States” and “Self-Study” become common words and shared experience across campus