Jesse Gallegos
Public Relations Coordinator
Luna Community College
Nov. 21, 2019
Luna remains accredited;
HLC probation to continue
By Dave Kavanaugh, Luna Community College
Luna Community College has made notable progress toward addressing accreditation issues and will remain on probation while continuing to do so.
That is the determination of the Higher Learning Commission Board of Trustees, who deliberated on the matter Nov. 7-8. The HLC is the Chicago-based organization that oversees accreditation for Luna and a number of colleges and universities across a 19-state region. The HLC informed Luna administrators of the decision on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 21.
“We are pleased that the Higher Learning Commission has recognized the progress we have made toward attaining accreditation free of sanctions,” said Dr. Rolando Rael, LCC president. “We also acknowledge that there is much work still to do. Make no mistake about it; accreditation remains important to us. It is a formal recognition of the quality of instruction and service to students and the communities at large. We will continue to work to attain the formal validation that accreditation provides. We must remain proactive about improving the college in every facet of our operation. But the bottom line for us is the heart of our mission – creating opportunities for our students. That has been and continues to be our priority as an institution.”
The college has been on probation since late June 2018. That was an upgrade from the show-cause order issued by the HLC in November 2017 – the first such sanction for Luna since it was first accredited by the HLC in 1982.
Since the show-cause order was lifted, Luna has hosted a site-visit team made up of administrators from other institutions and prepared comprehensive responses to the HLC that detail ongoing and planned improvements. A delegation from Luna also traveled to Chicago in August to present its case to the HLC’s Institutional Actions Council. As of the start of the fall 2019 semester, Luna had been found to meet 19 of 21 criteria for accreditation with plans in place to not only fortify the areas of deficiency but to make improvements and progress in multiple areas.
While on probation, the college remains accredited and has opportunity to remedy the issues that led to the sanction. For more information on the process, see the Accreditation link on the Luna website, luna.edu.
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