Index to the Location of Evidence Relating to the Commission’s Criteria for Accreditation Found in Missouri Western State University’s Systems Portfolio

Criterion One – Mission and Integrity. The organization operates with integrity to ensure the fulfillment of its mission through structures and processes that involve the board, administration, faculty, staff, and students.

Core Component 1a. The organization’s mission documents are clear and articulate publicly the organization’s commitments.

• The Western Advantage: A Five Year Strategic Plan includes institutional priorities and statements of mission, vision, values, and goals that articulate Western’s commitments (Overview, 8C1-8C2, 8P1-8P4).
• Western has identified its internal and external stakeholders (3C1-3C2).
• Western’s vision, mission, and values include a strong commitment to setting the standard for excellence in student development and community leadership (O1).
• Western’s mission emphasizes helping students achieve excellence in the classroom and beyond, as they prepare to be leaders in their work and in their communities (O1).
• Western regularly evaluates and, when appropriate, revises its mission, vision, and values through its strategic planning process. The highly participative planning process involves students, faculty, staff, administrators, the Board of Governors, and regional stakeholders (1I1, 8P1).
• Western makes its Strategic Plan available to the public and internally through a web version and hard copy distributed to key stakeholders and to every Western employee and units within the system (5P6, 8C1, 8P3).

Core Component 1b. In its mission documents, the organization recognizes the diversity of its learners, other constituencies, and the greater society it serves.

• Western’s values affirm the common purpose of serving people, commitment to quality, enthusiasm about learning, respect for diversity and the best in human potential, the free exchange of ideas, and a global perspective (Figure O.2, 2R3).
• Western encourages students to reflect on the value of individual and organizational integrity, to develop personal and professional respect for others, to foster international/intercultural sensitivity, and to promote personal and social responsibility (1C5).
• Western honors the dignity and worth of individuals by its commitment to participatory strategic planning, open communication, teamwork, and consensus decision-making (O1, 3P4, 5C1, 5P3, 8P1).
• Western maintains a climate of academic freedom, inquiry, and respect for diverse opinion for both students and faculty (1C5).

Core Component 1c. Understanding of and support for the mission pervade the organization.

• The Board of Governors, students, staff, faculty, and administration understand and support Western’s mission (4C1, 5C3, 5P6, 8C2, 8P1).
• Western’s strategic planning process drives quality improvement (O8, 5P5-5P6).
• All units at Western have five-year plans aligned with the strategic priorities of the institution (8P1).

Core Component 1d. The organization’s governance and administrative structures promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the organization to fulfill its mission.

• Western’s Board of Governors actively participated in helping Western to shape it vision, mission, values, and strategic initiatives. The Board strongly supports the concept of Western’s being a leader itself and expecting students and employees to be leaders (Figure O.2, 8P1).
• Western uses well-defined administrative and governance structures, processes, and activities to distribute responsibilities for accomplishing its mission (5C1, 5P3, 8P1).
• Western’s Board supports the administration’s leadership (8P4).
• Faculty contributes directly to setting and achieving goals in the areas of student learning, curriculum coherence, and academic integrity (1C2, 1C5, 1P1-1P3, 1P8, 1P10-1P11).
• Western communicates vertically and horizontally through leaders and leadership groups (5P5).
• Western engages in a continuous improvement cycle guided by its five-year strategic plan, annual progress reports, evaluation, improvement targets, and its vision for the next five to ten years (8C1).

Core Component 1e. The organization upholds and protects its integrity.

• Western identifies itself through its mission and holds steadfastly to its focus on students as individuals and members of society, offering them the opportunity to achieve excellence in the classroom and beyond, and helping them to become leaders in the community. A statewide mission in applied learning guides the development of programs and the way Western structures learning activities and processes (O1, O8, 1P10, 1R1).
• Western recognizes and fulfills its responsibilities as a state-supported, open access public institution with a statewide mission in applied learning, and takes into account the consequences of its action upon the communities to which it belongs, and upon the higher education system (O6, 5C3).
• The Board of Governors ensures that Western operates legally, responsibly, and with fiscal honesty (5P3).
• Accrediting bodies ensure sustained excellence, integrity, and accountability, assessment, improvement, and results in programs at Western (Figure 3.3, Figure 9.2).
• Western takes into account the requirements and expectations of both its internal and external stakeholders and treats them with equity and respect (3C1-3C2, 3P3, 3P7).
• Western has established policies that guide the institution’s ethical and fair labor standards (4P3).
• Western has policies and processes for the resolution of appeals, grievances, and complaints (3P6).