The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has begun the process of reviewing the University for reaccreditation- allowing the University to give students credible degrees.

According to its Web site, SACS is “the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states.”

Bob Boehmer, associate provost for institutional effectiveness, said the decennial reaccreditation process is a lengthy process for the University.

“There are a lot people on campus working on a variety of aspects of [the reaccreditation]. It is a huge undertaking for UGA, but is also of long term importance for UGA,” said Boehmer, whose office is responsible for the University’s reaccreditation.

The SACS Commission on Colleges is the regional recognized accreditation body for 11 states in the southern U.S., including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The commission reviews institutions of higher learning that award associate, baccalaureate, master’s and/or doctoral degrees in the region.

Like all other southern colleges and universities, the University must comply with SACS criteria and undergo the long process of University-wide accreditation.

Boehmer, who is also the SACS liaison for the University, said different colleges within the University require specialized accreditation from different bodies of accreditation.

Recently, the University’s College of Public Health was awarded full accreditation from the Council on the Education for Public Health, making it only the second college of public health within Georgia to receive full accreditation.

The University’s College of Public Health was founded in 2005, and joins 41 colleges nationwide meeting the standards of the Council on the Education for Public Health.

Boehmer, who also headed the last reaccreditation from 1999 to 2001, said the University has been preparing for the reaccreditation process for more than a year now, with different teams carrying out different pieces of the process.

“There are two major components of accreditation: the prep process and the compliance itself,” Boehmer said.

He said the University accreditation will conclude in spring 2011 when the University is visited by a SACS review team.

David Shipley, a professor within the University’s School of Law, is chair of the compliance team for the accreditation process.

“The role of the compliance team is to look at the 82 principles that SACS has promulgated,” Shipley said. “We go principle by principle to see if the University is complying with each one.”

His team, which is composed of about 30 people, was formed in May 2008 and officially became part of the compliance team last fall.

“It’s an ongoing process where we meet a couple times a month to make sure we are in compliance with every SACS principle. It’s a huge endeavor we have with other subgroups, not just our own group,” Shipley said.

Boehmer said Shipley is in charge of one of the three teams included in the accreditation process. The other two are the quality enhancement and leadership teams.

According to the quality enhancement plan Web site, the leadership team chose “The Integrated Program for First-Year Experience” as the quality enhancement team’s focus.

SACS accreditation now requires the University to implement a plan for improving an aspect of student learning.

Shipley said his team reports to the leadership team and will have a digital report on the University’s compliance to SACS principles for them within a year.

But even after they have filed their report, Shipley said their work will not be done until the SACS visit in March 2011.

“The report will be done well in advance and will be online for easy access to users,” Shipley said. “It’s a massive document we’re preparing and most of it will be digital. I don’t really know how many zip drives we’ll need for it.”

Shipley said the accreditation process is even more daunting considering the size of the University.

“The scope of UGA and the number of degrees and degree programs the institution offers is just huge compared to other schools,” Shipley said. “And having to explain that to somebody who doesn’t know UGA the way we do is a challenge. But with the changes in higher education, we have to support compliance to accreditation and have to comply to those 80-plus principles set forth by SACS.”