Office of Assessment and Accreditation

The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is one of the integral components of CNU’s reaffirmation of accreditation process through our accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Requiring institutions to have a QEP serves as a way for our accreditors to ensure that we continue to grow our commitment to enhancing CNU’s quality and effectiveness in the realm of student learning and/or success.

We get to select the topic for our QEP, but it must be focused within the bounds of improving specific student learning outcomes and/or student success. These areas are defined broadly by SACSCOC, but our focus must be targeted within those areas.

A QEP has 5 key elements:

1. Topic identified through our ongoing, comprehensive planning and evaluation processes
   • This means we examine institutional data to determine what we already do well, and where there are gaps; it also means we consider the overarching direction of CNU, such as the Strategic Compass, and our liberal arts mission.
2. Broad-based support of institutional constituencies (stakeholders)
   • This means the QEP involves a collaborative process that spans stakeholders within the campus community, and focuses on a topic that is deemed worthy by a sizeable majority of stakeholders.
3. Focuses on improving specific student learning outcomes and/or student successes
4. Resources committed to initiate, implement, and complete the QEP
5. Includes a plan to assess achievement of identified goals and objectives

How to Participate

Every member of our campus community will have ample opportunity to participate in the QEP process. It’s essential for a wide range of voices and perspectives to be heard and carefully considered in order to identify an impactful, broadly supported QEP topic. Keep an eye out for surveys, invitations to focus groups and town halls, email invitations and updates, and opportunities for discussion. Updates and opportunities to participate will be posted on this website as well. You can also contact Lynn Shollen, QEP Director, at qep@cnu.edu.