By the time students return from Christmas Break, the administration should know if Multnomah has been granted candidacy for accreditation with the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.

MBC began seeking accreditation in 1998 when they sent an initial application to NASC. Dr. Wayne Strickland, liaison officer between the school and NASC and the chairman of the steering committee, described the application as "more like a self-study."

"We had to address 25 issues," he said. "We had to satisfy the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges that we met each of those standards."

NASC accepted the application in January, 1999.

After the application is candidacy. This stage consists of a self-study and a site visit by peers. This self-study not only addressed the 25 standards from the application, but also focused on nine issues including institutional mission, students, faculty, administration, finance and institutional integrity. The self-study came to about 300 pages. Dr. Strickland and the steering committee finished the study and submitted it to NASC in September.

In October, seven people from other academic institutions visited MBC's campus to evaluate whether the self-study was accurate.

"We receive a written report as a result of the site visit," Dr. Strickland said. "We have received the rough draft of that, but we will not find out what their recommendation is."

The report lists areas of commendation and recommendation.

"We are impressed by the genuine sense of community we found at all levels of the institution, and by the strong commitment of [MBC]'s trustees, faculty, staff and students to the goals and purposes of the institution," the report read.

"We commend the faculty for the quality of their teaching and for their personal dedication to their students. They model their values and there is a strong correlation between values and actions," the report read elsewhere.

Some of the recommendations from the report included a better General Education program, more academic assessment and continuing attention to faculty research. The report found a need for improvement in the library.

"A number of academic programs are now minimally supported and library collections are not keeping up with some academic programs that now exist. We strongly urge [MBC] not to add new academic programs unless and until appropriate support is demonstrably present."

Dr. Strickland described the next part of the process. "[The site visit team] makes a recommendation to the commission and the commission is the one that is going to vote whether we et accepted into candidacy or not -- whether we are able to finish the second stage. [The vote] is going to happen December 15."

On Dec. 15, both MBC and the site visit team will make presentations to the commission. Later that month, the commission will communicate its decision to the school in writing.

If MBC gets candidacy, the next step will be to work on correcting any of the nine standards the school does not meet at this time. NASC allows five years before the standards must be met. At the end of that, the steering committee will do another self-study, followed by another site visit. That site visit team will make a recommendation to the commission that MBC is either qualified or not qualified to become accredited with NASC.

"Then after that it's a non-ending cycle because every 10 years you go through the cycle of accreditation again. You have your accreditation reaffirmed or renewed every 10 years," Dr. Strickland said.

"The good thing about it is you're always involved in evaluation," he said. "It forces you to make sure you're always evaluating, and you have the perspective of that third person, somebody coming from off campus and taking a look at it."

Dr. Garry Friesen said the process of peer evaluation will improve the recognition of the quality of an MBC education.

He said, "It will give [graduates] better transferability and entry into graduate school."

"Even if for some reason we are denied candidacy, what we've accomplished so far in terms of assessment of our programs -- some of the changes that have taken place -- was needed.... The Lord has used that to put some pieces into place to help us to be a better school," Dr. Strickland said.