News & Events

July 30, 2007

CONTACT:

Carl Young, Interim Director of Communications
425.352.8256
cyoung@cascadia.edu

Cascadia Community College Earns Accreditation--Milestone is "Cause for Celebration"

Bothell, WA - Cascadia Community College announced that it has earned accredited status with the regional accrediting agency. The college received notification from the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) of initial accreditation. The community college, the newest in Washington state, opened in Bothell in fall 2000, and has served thousands of students while undergoing the rigorous process of meeting the NWCCU requirements.

“Every member of our faculty, staff and board of trustees have contributed to this achievement,” said Dr. Bill Christopher, president of Cascadia. “The commendations we received from the Commission reflect their appreciation for the remarkable devotion to student learning and the commitment to high standards that exist on this campus.”

In the notification letter, the Commission commended the college in four specific areas:

• “. . . for its distinctive and pervasive culture that values student and faculty engagement, interdisciplinary learning, shared decision-making, and human potential.”
• “. . . for the quality of its faculty, full-time and associate.”
• “. . . the breadth and quality of the Work-Based learning opportunities provided to students enrolled in its professional-technical programs.”
• “. . . for the excellence of its library, library staff, services and facilities.”

Accreditation is especially important in facilitating the transfer of credits for students who intend to graduate from Cascadia and then attend a four-year college or university in another state. Accredited status provides colleges with a standard for accepting the credits earned at other colleges. The process of accreditation includes visits by teams of leaders from other colleges, extensive self-study activities and documentation, and campus-wide participation in meeting standards in nine broad areas of teaching and learning, governance, finance, and administration. For more information on accreditation, please see http://www.nwccu.org.

“Accreditation is critically important to our faculty and our students,” said Dr. Jean Hernandez, the executive vice president for student learning. “We will begin fall quarter in September with great cause for celebration.”

Cascadia Community College, located in Bothell, shares a campus with the University of Washington Bothell. Cascadia is committed to innovative instruction in small classes that emphasize active and collaborative learning by students. More than 2,500 students are enrolled each quarter. For more information, see: www.cascadia.edu.

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