Dec 12
NEOMED earns full, 10-year accreditation
Northeast Ohio Medical University has been fully reaccredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) for the next 10 years – an affirmation of the quality of the University’s educational programs and services.
That was the news recently shared by President John Langell during a campus-wide meeting as he thanked the NEOMED community for its great work.
Across the University, more than 70 people worked on the 16-month process overseen by University leaders including:
- Richard Kasmer, Pharm.D., J.D., vice president for academic affairs;
- Deborah Loyet, M.S., M.A., executive director of institutional research, who serves as NEOMED’s HLC Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO); and
- Jeff Wenstrup, Ph.D., chair of NEOMED’s HLC Steering Committee.
The process culminated in a site visit in September. At that time, the University demonstrated to an external team of HLC peer reviewers that it meets the HLC’s five Criteria for Accreditation.
“The effort and quality of the work done by teams across the University to prepare our Assurance Argument was nothing short of heroic,” said Dr. Kasmer. “Everyone stepped up to help us complete a very thorough response. The peer review team that came to NEOMED for the site visit was impressed with the level of commitment from faculty, staff and students.”
Misson Driven
In their final report, the peer review team shared the following observations:
“NEOMED is clearly driven by its revised mission and new strategic plan. The implementation for the strategic plan includes measurable outcomes for each activity. The zero-based budgeting plan also has measurable outcomes. Diversity is an integral part of the new strategic plan and it is clear that this is important to students, faculty and staff. Everyone is doing DEI work. The current administration and BOT [Board of Trustees] value a shared governance model and communication between faculty, staff, students and administration is a strength.”
The peer reviewers were also pleased with NEOMED’s overall efforts with diversity, especially improvements made in student diversity. However, they felt similar efforts were needed to attract a diverse faculty body.
“Unfortunately, the faculty data do not show that the diversity in the faculty aligns with the mission or the student population (3C1) which is why that [component] is met with concerns,” the reported noted. “The team believes that a new diversity action plan which includes a faculty hiring plan will be a step in the right direction.”
A monitoring report on faculty diversity will be included in 2026-27 Assurance Review, which is a component of the HLC Open Pathway.
