While the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges Evaluation Team could not give a formal statement on De Anza College’s accreditation renewal prospects, team chair Raul Rodriguez said he does not think there will be any issues during the process.

“To receive such an enthusiastic thumbs up, at this time, during the worst budget crisis in God knows how long, is a tremendous victory,” said De Anza College President Brian Murphy in response to the report.

The ACCJC Evaluation Team gave its Exit Report on De Anza’s Self-Study Report on Oct. 27, offering five commendations and three recommendations, and providing what Rodriguez called closure to the three-day assessment.

The team’s recommendations are only verbal, and subject to change while the report is finalized; the report is only a recommendation to the accreditation commission which reserves the right to issue a differing opinion.

The team recommends that De Anza double its efforts to get its Student Learning Outcomes completed by next fall or the school will miss the deadline, to verify the school’s planning process is updated as the process is untested and to comply with De Anza’s Self-Study Standard I:A and properly identify the intended student body of De Anza in the college’s mission statement.

The team gave commendations on De Anza’s use of bond measure funds and the school’s commitment to sustainability and stated that the Staff and Organizational Development was “outstanding,” and the board is “very impressed” with both De Anza’s student body and  the Foothill/De Anza distric’s Board of Trustees.

Rodriguez said the eagerness of De Anza’s student body to give back to the school and its activism stood out to the Evaluation Team. Murphy asked, “How cool is it that our students got a commendation?” when speaking to guests after the meeting.  

District Chancellor Linda Thor said Foothill’s Exit Report was “very similar” to De Anza’s, and that it is rare for the Board of Trustees to get a commendation.

The final statement on De Anza’s Self-Study Report, recently renamed the Institutional Self Evaluation, will be presented to the accrediting commission and available to the public in February 2012. 

De Anza’s Self-Study Report can be found at deanza.edu/accreditation/