Meharry Medical College
SACS Reaffirmation of
Accreditation (2007)

Southern Education Foundation Supports Meharry's SACS Reaffirmation Efforts

Last May, Meharry Medical College was offered an opportunity to compete for a $15,000 grant through the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) that, if won, would assist the College in its preparation for reaccreditation by the Commission on Colleges Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

The SEF is based in Atlanta, Georgia and offers it’s Investing in HBCU Leadership Program in an attempt to address some of the most pressing institutional needs of HBCU’s in the South as they face old and new challenges in their pivotal role of educating the nation’s African American students.

In August 2004, Meharry was notified that it had successfully competed for the $15,000 grant award! This award provided the necessary funding to initiate the self-study process in our efforts to reaffirm out SACS accreditation.

The Office of the SACS Accreditation Liaison, under the leadership of A. Cherrie Epps, Ph.D., and the Meharry Institutional Effectiveness Committee (IEC) had already been conducting a self-study of the major departments and divisions on campus which ultimately resulted in a report of Meharry’s Compliance and Non-Compliance with the new, more stringent SACS Comprehensive Standards and Core Requirements.

The SEF grant allowed the IEC to bring two consultants identified as expert in the new SACS procedures and requirements to Meharry’s campus to orient the IEC and SACS leadership to the new process. The Office of the SACS Accreditation Liaison has conducted a campus-wide orientation; produced the first of three SACS Newsletters for the campus community and launched the sacs.mmc.edu website for campus awareness and updates.

The Report produced with the support of the SEF is the foundation for the work of the 13 SACS Committees appointed, which is intended to intensify the self-study effort.

Meharry was recently site visited by the SEF and followed by the submission of its grant Report detailing our efforts and progress to date resulting from the support of SEF.