How do we know?

Winter 2005

This fall, Berry was ranked second among comprehensive liberal arts colleges in the South, the 19th time we have been placed at or near the top of the U.S. News & World Report annual survey. U.S. News employs a variety of criteria for making such judgments, including a poll of presidents of similar institutions.

Everyone knows that opinion is divided about the validity of these annual surveys, although I think that presidents of colleges at the top of the list tend to trust the process more than those further down. I have no quarrel with U.S. News beyond firmly believing Berry is No. 1 rather than No. 2. Certainly, being ranked in the top group for so many years is a remarkable accomplishment that we should celebrate.

Colleges and universities, though, can turn to other nationally recognized, trustworthy ways to be ranked and evaluated. The best known of these is regional accreditation. Each decade, accredited institutions undergo a self-study and then external review before their accreditation can be reaffirmed. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is the toughest of the regional accrediting agencies, and successful reaffirmation
comes only after a lengthy and rigorous process.

However, SACS alone is not sufficient measurement. The key to a high ranking is a preponderance of evidence. When it comes to positive indicators, more is better. 

For instance, Berry stands well above the crowd in specialized accreditation of academic programs. The Charter School of Education and Human Sciences has been accredited for the past 30 years by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). During our last accreditation visit, the head of the visiting NCATE team told Charter School Dean Jackie McDowell and me that he and his team had "never encountered a better teacher-preparation program than Berry's," which is high praise indeed.

Our music program, accredited since 1974 by the National Association of Schools of Music, makes Berry one of just 550 NASM institutions in the country. Just last year, Berry's chemistry program received certification from the American Chemical Society. Only a very few ACS-approved programs are located at small colleges.

The fourth major program-accrediting body is AACSB, the blue-ribbon accrediting organization for schools of business. We have met all AACSB criteria and hope to receive official recognition this academic year.

This recognition of our education, music, chemistry and business programs places Berry in the top 20 percent of colleges in the country.

We are not satisfied, however, with external accreditation alone. Every five or six years, each academic program undergoes review by a visiting team of professors from peer and aspirant institutions. Generally, teams of three visitors from colleges such as Davidson, Furman and Sewanee spend two days on campus interviewing students and faculty members to determine departmental strengths and weaknesses. The visiting team produces a written report that helps departments identify areas for improvement. Such reports also give the provost and president a detached and objective evaluation of how well we are doing in each academic area. Over the years, we have received glowing reviews.

Other campus programs, such as career services and residence life, also undergo similar external evaluation. Given the regular cycle, there are always three or four areas under review each academic year.

Another "report card" we use is student opinion. We employ polling instruments common to hundreds of other colleges and universities to learn how Berry students respond in comparison to students at similar institutions across the country. Berry scores very well in these national polls.

This past year, we used a specialized student satisfaction survey to see how our business program was doing. Our Campbell School ranked exceedingly well among 177 participating colleges and universities in Undergraduate Business Exit Studies. That is, Berry was ranked among the best business programs in the country in student satisfaction.

Also of significance is how well Berry students perform in postgraduate and professional studies. In recent years, we have enjoyed 100 percent acceptance rates for applications to medical and veterinary schools, where our students thrive. Moreover, deans at Emory's school of nursing and the pharmacy school at Mercer report that Berry graduates always come out on top in these two postgraduate endeavors. More than 40 percent of our graduates are moving directly into graduate study after graduation, a steep increase over the past eight years.

Berry students also win glittering prizes in national competition. This past spring, two of the top six speakers in the nation's oldest and most prestigious forensics competition were from Berry. Our Model UN team finished in the top six percent of 226 student delegations that competed in New York City. Our sports program ranked eighth among 292 NAIA institutions in the Director's Cup standings, which placed us in the top three percent nationally. A Berry athlete won the Duer Award, a national recognition of athletic ability, character and academic success. About the same time, another Berry student was awarded a Goldwater Scholarship, one of a small number given nationally each year. By conservative count, last year about 50 Berry students produced conference papers and scholarly articles in collaboration with their professors, an unusual achievement given the quality of the conferences and journals represented. When our students go head-to-head in national competition, they perform well.

We should take pride in the various accomplishments on our report card. The most important assessments, however, are the most difficult to verify. What kind of people do Berry graduates become? Are they lifelong learners? Do they continue to grow morally and spiritually? Are they people of good character who serve their communities well?

These are the essential questions, questions that must meet the test of time. I think we have been doing well in these categories for many years, but I know we cannot drop our standards nor lessen our resolve. Our educational mission demands our best efforts every week, month and year. Our students – and the world in which they will live and work in the future – depend upon us.