Welcome

The challenges of higher education in the 21st Century require a strong commitment to one’s mission, a clear articulation of one’s vision, the persistent pursuit of strategic policies and practices to fulfill the mission and actualize the vision, and the careful and thorough assessment of mission, vision, policy and practice with a constant eye toward improvement. MidAmerica Nazarene University has been engagedin that careful and thorough assessment for much of the last decade. For the past two and a half years, that assessment process has gained both focus and intensity through the Self-Study. It is my pleasure to introduce the documentation of the Self-Study prepared for The Higher Learning Commission Accreditation Evaluation Team as a prelude to the site visit on March 2-4, 2009.

Early on we selected “Embracing the Vision, Pursuing the Call” as our theme. The operative verbs denote a dedication grounded in an ideal and a commitment to move with purpose into the future. MidAmerica is beginning its 41st year as a learning community. We have a strong history of viewing ourselves as a university with a distinct vision for Christian higher education shaped by our core values of faith, servant leadership, excellence, innovation, and care. We are moved by a sense of calling consistent with that of our founders, who aptly selected “Pioneers” as our mascot and motivational symbol. Just as the early

pioneers set out across the untamed prairies of the West, so MidAmerica Pioneers show the same spirit, hope and perseverance as we pursue the call to excellence in Christian higher education. The self-study was designed to assess the relevance of our mission, the validity of our vision, the integrity of our policies and the effectiveness of the daily patterns and practices. The goal is the pursuit of excellence across the University. The means is consistent and measurable improvement in every dimension of our work.

Throughout the self-study process we committed to asking the hard questions, digging below the surface of appearances, and analyzing the wealth of data for meaning as well as accuracy. This documentation is the result of that commitment. As with projects of this magnitude, there are a host of people involved. There are a few who have given themselves to the task of synthesizing and organizing the many parts intoa unified whole. Both the many and the few have done their work well so that we have a realistic reflection of our assets and liabilities, particularly in light of the HLC Criteria for Accreditation. As a result of our formative evaluations, we have already begun the process of enriching our assets and working on our liabilities. We look forward to a constructive summative assessment and the opportunity to become the kind of University we desire to be. I am grateful for the Evaluation Team’s commitment to quality in higher education and your expertise in helping us to achieve that quality here.

                                                                                Looking forward . . .