Middle States Self-Study Middle States Overview

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) is the accreditation body for our institution. Tompkins Cortland Community College started its current Self-Study cycle in Fall 2024 by designating leadership roles and forming the Steering Committee and Working Groups. The MSCHE Evaluation Team site visit is slated for Fall 2026.

The Self-Study process will:

• Demonstrate how the College meets the MSCHE’s Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation.
• Engage the College community in an inclusive and transparent self-assessment process to ensure students are appropriately served and institutional mission and goals are met.
• Inform the College’s current and future strategic planning efforts.
• Identify institutional strengths and opportunities for improvement in the Middle States Standards of affiliation and institutional priorities identified.
• Use assessment results for continuous improvement and innovation to ensure quality and the attainment of the institution’s priorities, mission, and goals.

This process is critical to demonstrating the College’s fulfillment of its mission, commitment to serving our community, and dedication to continuous improvement. To that end, the College has identified four Institutional Priorities that advance our Mission, support our Strategic Plan, and align with all seven of Middle States Standards:

1. Cultivate excellence in teaching, learning, and academic programs
2. Advance successful student outcomes to strengthen student mobility
3. Create a caring, equitable, and engaged campus community for students, faculty, staff, and community members
4. Enhance institutional effectiveness, accountability, and transparency for responsible stewardship of resources

What is Middle States Accreditation?

MSCHE requires that “institutions meet rigorous and comprehensive accreditation standards, assuring students and the public of excellence in higher education.” MSCHE affirms “the quality of higher education through peer review, assessment, and evaluation. An institution is accredited when the educational community has confirmed through self-reflection and peer review that its mission is achieved and progress is made toward institutional goals. Accredited institutions pursue excellence and innovation at all levels through ongoing quality assurance, improvement, innovation, and systematic, periodic, and sustained assessment.” (2025, Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation | Fourteenth Edition, Middle States Commission of Higher Education)

The MSCHE Standards of Accreditation

Standard 1: Mission and Goals

The institution’s mission defines its purpose within the context of higher education, the students it serves, and what it intends to accomplish. The institution’s stated goals are clearly linked to its mission and specify how the institution fulfills its mission.

Standard 2: Ethics and Integrity

Ethics and integrity are central, indispensable, and defining hallmarks of effective higher education institutions. In all activities, whether internal or external, an institution must be faithful to its mission, honor its contracts and commitments, adhere to its policies, and represent itself truthfully.

Standard 3: Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience

An institution provides students with learning experiences that are characterized by rigor and coherence at all program, certificate, and degree levels, regardless of instructional modality. All learning experiences, regardless of modality, program pace/schedule, level, and setting are consistent with higher education expectations.

Standard 4: Support of the Student Experience

Across all educational experiences, settings, levels, and instructional modalities, the institution recruits and admits students whose interests, abilities, experiences, and goals are congruent with its mission and educational offerings. The institution commits to student retention, persistence, completion, and success through a coherent and effective support system sustained by qualified professionals.

Standard 5: Educational Effectiveness Assessment

Assessment of student learning and achievement demonstrates that the institution’s students have accomplished educational goals consistent with their program of study, degree level, the institution’s mission, and appropriate expectations for institutions of higher education.

Standard 6: Planning, Resources, and Institutional Improvement

The institution’s planning processes, resources, and structures are aligned with each other and are sufficient to fulfill its mission and goals, to continuously assess and improve its programs and services, and to respond effectively to opportunities and challenges.

Standard 7: Governance, Leadership, and Administration

The institution is governed and administered in a manner that allows it to realize its stated mission and goals in a way that effectively benefits the institution, its students, and the other constituencies it serves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact

For more information about the Self-Study, please contact Tompkins Cortland Community College’s Self-Study Leads:

• Malvika Talwar – Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Accreditation Liaison Officer
• Kelly Wessell – Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies
• Victoria Zeppelin – Director of CollegeNow