After being reviewed by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the art department has been reaccredited for a 10-year period.
The accreditation means that all of the standards and guidelines for an art program have been followed, said department head Kay Demarsche. The department has been accredited since 1985.
“Being accredited benefits students after they graduate because if employers or graduate schools know they went to an accredited school, it makes them look good,” Demarsche said.
The art department had to compile a self-study that outlines all of the programs and procedures in the department, requirements of the classes and information about students and faculty to achieve accreditation.
A visitation team was sent by the association in the spring of 2002 to look at the facilities, student work and other parts of the art department. Six months after the site visit, the association sent a report informing the department of possible improvements.
“They told us about some minor problems that we had and gave us a year to fix those areas,” Demarsche said. “MSU gave all of the support we needed to solve any of the problems.”
To comply, the art department hired new faculty members and made some repairs to the facilities. It received notification that the department had become re-accredited in the fall of 2003.
“The whole department put a lot of work into living up to the standards. Everyone is proud of the success,” Demarsche said.
The art department is not the only part of the university that deals with accreditation. In December Mississippi State as a whole received reaccreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The next review process will begin in 2011 for reaffirmation in 2014.
Twenty-eight colleges and departments within the university have to go through accreditation at various times.
“Each department may or may not go through accreditation,” said academic coordinator Nancy Fultz.
She said some departments are covered within the umbrella of the university, while others must be accredited in specific areas.
The College of Architecture is currently going through its accreditation process. Every six years, the National Architectural Accrediting Board reviews the architecture program.
Like the art department, architecture faculty had to send a report to the board before a site visit. This mont, the board will come to look at the architecture facilities, faculty and student work, and write a report to recommend whether or not the college should be reaccredited.
“The site visit is about coming to our school to look at student work,” said James West, dean of the College of Architecture.
The COA has been accredited since 1979. If the college is not accredited, its graduates will not be able to become registered architects.
“It is very important for our school to be accredited again, but we are confident that we will be reaccredited,” West said. “We will get recommendations because there is no school that is perfect.”